


A Journey of a Thousand Hyphae

by dcockroach



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s02e09 The Belly of the Weblum, Fire-forged Friends, For Want of a Nail, Gen, or that's when it starts, weblum buddies dynamic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:01:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28507137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dcockroach/pseuds/dcockroach
Summary: When an unexpected miscalculation that throws their weblum-driving, scaultrite-collecting mission out of order and cascades into a series of unfortunate events, Hunk and Keith, along with an unexpected tagalong, become lost in desolate, uninhabited planet in the middle of nowhere. Desperate, they have a new mission: to get out quickly, or risk jeopardizing their master plan, and possibly, their lives.
Relationships: Acxa & Hunk & Keith (Voltron), Acxa & Hunk (Voltron), Acxa & Keith (Voltron), Hunk & Keith (Voltron)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	1. Twist of Fate

**Author's Note:**

> _**Disclaimer:** I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender or any of the property thereof. All characters mentioned here are property of Dreamworks and WEP. This is a work of fiction intended for the purposes of entertainment and I do not mean to profit, or claim as my own. Any relations to people, similar or dead, are completely unintentional._
> 
> This work is written by me so please do not repost.

It wasn’t supposed to end up like this.

The mission was simple. Get in the weblum, get the stuff, and get out. Simple enough. It didn’t have to - _shouldn’t_ have to be complicated. Guess these kind of things were never going to be easy for him.

No, the scream comes on the intercom quick, loud, and _shrill._ Keith nearly stumbles over the shards of scaultrite left floating around the weblum’s stomach after the laser dissipated. “Hunk?! Hunk, do you copy?!” Keith practically screams into the intercom, knowing the voice could only come from one source. He glances over at the galra he saved, but he were too busy examining the barrel of the weblum's defense mechanism to notice his distress. 

No response.

“Hunk!” Keith spins back when he screams it, pushing him backwards almost, and he crashes into the back of the other galra, who blankly stares at Keith for a second before firing their blasters to add some room between them again. 

Nothing. Not even static. That wasn’t good. “We have to-” Keith turns around only to be met with the barrel of a gun. Time slows to a standstill. With a glare, he looks up to meet the black mask of the other galra. 

_Great. Just what he needs right now._ “Y _ou’re just like the rest of them._ ” Keith spits out, the words curling out like venom. The air, palpitating before from the laser, suddenly becomes cold as ice. There they stay frozen, neither moving a muscle.

Eventually, after what was _too_ long, the galra shifts first, breaking its cold hold, but only to casually toss a half-filled bag of scaultrite over his shoulder. The gun still whirls in his hand, still posed at Keith’s face. Finally, after what feels like hours, the galra pulls the gun down and blasts away into the barrel of the weblum’s laser canel. 

Without another glance Keith blasts away to the Yellow Lion, leaving the galra behind. 

* * *

She’s standing on the edge of an open pore on the weblum’s back when she sees it. It drifts lifelessly across space, another dead satellite among many dotting the starry expanse.

The Yellow Lion. That must’ve been how he - no, _they_ got here. But how? The Yellow Lion was the most sturdy of the Voltron Lions. Its armor alone should be able to withstand-

 _No._ There’s more important matters to attend to. Such as contacting Lotor for a rendezvous. She does not have the time to be concerned over the enemy. She is in the Pfyxian System, if she makes it to Fyxian II, its thinner gravitational field should permit her to establish a direct hailing frequency that would bypass the imperial communication center and reach the Cruiser directly-

The Yellow lion drifts into view again, closer this time, breaking through her planning. She frowns, and turns her back towards it. Bringing up her arm, the computer’s red dashboard already displays the Lotor’s communication log. She stares at it for a tick. Then slowly over her shoulder at the Yellow Lion. It still drifts aimlessly across the expanse, the gravitational pull of planetary remnants carrying it not too far from her location onboard the weblum. If they were competent they should have fixed it by now- _she’s becoming distracted again._ Swiftly turning back to her computer’s log she’s posed to press the key to open a channel then stops.

He _did_ saved her. If she helped now it would save her the trouble- _hmm_ . She sighs and with a deep eyeblink turns around again. The bag of scaultrite drifts off the side of her shoulder. She adjusts it with a flip, closing her log in the process. She should not be engaging herself in petty, useless matters with the enemy. She’s a general, with a grander mission than whatever the paladins possibly hope to achieve. _That is_ her chief priority right now. 

She instinctively tightens her grip on the bag of scaultrite. At least, It _should._

* * *

_Beeeeep…beeeeep....beeeep…._

_No…not now…. Can’t they just- can’t Coran just cut it with the wake-up drills already?_ They’ve formed Voltron like a _bazillion_ times already. Can't a guy get some good night's rest around here? Hold on, hold on, wasn’t he - when had he fallen _asleep?_

“Wha-??!” Hunk snaps his eyes wide open. It was dark. _So so_ dark. Pitch black as if he hadn’t opened his eyes yet and sleeping in his darkened room back in the castle-

“WHERE AM I? WHY IS IT SO DARK I DO _NOT LIKE DARKNESS._ ” He waves his arms around. He touches nothing. He feels himself spinning slowly over onto his back. “And _why_ am I underwater-?” he chokes out, his chest suddenly out of air.

“ _Relax,_ Hun. we're in the yellow lion.” A firm grip on Hunk’s shoulder steadies him midair and his nerves.

“Keith is that you?” Hunk spins around towards Keith, or where he _thinks_ Keith _would_ be if he could see him. Stupid darkness.

“I’m here.” Keith raised his clenched fist, the flashlight on his arm brace thing illuminating up his face. ….And also burning Hunk’s own eyes. Ow.

“Owww Keith - Keith your light. It’s in my eyes. _Hurting_ my eyes.” 

“Oh sorry.”

The light, thankfully now away from his face, is moved towards the dashboard. The non-existing dashboard. The dashboard that ought to be yellow and _working_. 

“Whoa-whoa-whoa what happened to the Yellow Lion? Are you okay buddy boy?” He feels nothing. No gentle purr. No mental vision. Nothing. “Is he okay? Do you know what happened to him Keith?.” He throws the questions at Keith over his shoulder. 

“You got hit.” Keith explains, “By the weblum. When you were trying to activate its defense mechanism.” 

And like that it all comes flooding back to him. The immune system. The farting. Getting back into the Yellow Lion. Hitting the giant monster. Getting it to activate its defense mechanism. A success. Getting out of the way. Not a success. Well, at least, according to Keith.

Turns out, it was one thing going into the belly of a beast to harvest scaultrite. Another thing to _actually_ do it _and_ get out and _not_ get hurt. Or dead. _Urgh._

And he HAD managed to distract it. Hunk had got it to fire its weird laser goop, managed to avoid it successfully, and tell Keith about it. Too bad weblums have a really fast reload time.

“I tried to call you to come pick me up, but you were screaming in the com. When I came out the yellow lion was floating in space.” Keith continues his story instead, filling in the gaps Hunk’s memory couldn’t stuff. 

Oh he always got to go on the _worst_ missions.

The beeping interrupts his thinking again. A small flashing light at the corner of his helmet's screen blinks persistently. _Not now helmet,_ Hunk presses the button, turning off the signal. Doesn’t it see he’s already dealing with another crisis at the moment? He tries to swim over towards what _was_ the Yellow lion’s dashboard. Not happening. He groans mid-air. 

_And_ he got the worst deals too. 

“No luck yet?” Keith asks, behind him. He blasts a bit of his jet packs to steady himself in the zero G. Right. They have jetpacks. Hunk had forgotten about those too. 

Hunk runs his hands over the dashboard lifting up different panels and glancing inside, moving some parts, but the Yellow lion doesn’t wake up. “The yellow lion’s not responding,” Hunk says, picking at the different parts of what would have been the dashboard.

“Yeah. It’s been like this for a while.” Keith points out, slowly moving the flashlight on his wrist to track Hunk jumping around the dashboard. 

“I think it might be really deep - maybe? Gotta go under the hood I think.” Hunk pulls the shaft to the dashboard controls open and peers inside. It’s dark. “Can you, uh, point the light down here?” He pushes himself back down as the zero gravity slowly lifts him. Hunk glances inside. Nothing wrong there. “I was thinking, maybe-maybe there was a pro-gravity switch here? One that shuts off when you’re hit?" Hunk explains, looking around in the dashboard compartment. But there isn’t one and everything else it looks okay here. I’ll have to check the main engine down back.” Hunk shakes his head. “Man it’s like when we were hit by that weird, purple-ly magic stuff that corrupted the wormhole after we saved Allura from Zarkon. Only that time was _less_ bad cause at least we had _gravity_ -”

And like that Hunk and Keith crash face down onto the floor.

“ _Ow.”_ Slowly, he looks up at the ceiling. The yellow accents, once dark like the rest of the lion when he’d woken up, flicker back into existence.

“Heey the Yellow Lion’s woken up! Welcome back buddy boy!” Hunk stumbles back onto his feet. He runs his hands over the dashboard. Or what _would_ be it, had it lit up again. The only thing the cockpit seems to have was light and gravity. “Wait the dashboard hasn’t returned-”

The sound of steps coming from the Yellow lion’s mouth tube entrance stops him. 

“Uhh, you invited another person on the ship right?” Hunk asks Keith. Keith responds by unsheathing his bayard. It’s all Hunk needed to lose it. With a small yelp, he pulls out his bayard too. Trembling, he points it towards the mouth entrance. 

When did they get in? Did they hitch a ride while he was out? Did Keith suspect anything? Wait no, he couldn't have, why would he have his bayard out if he did? Wait could it be-

“Ohhh Keith you didn’t tell me your buddy’s on board- Keith?” 

He turns to Keith - wait, was that confusion on Keith’s face? Keith stands, as if he’d been hit by the Blue Lion’s freezer ray, a furrowed brow etched all over his face. Yep definitely confused.

But his buddy doesn’t seem all as confused as he did or awkward at all really, at least, judging by how he strides into the main body of the cockpit. A small light in his hands reflects off the accent glow of the cockpit. 

“Uhh, what you got there?” Hunk asks, hiding his bayard and tentatively stepping closer to the weblum galra to get a look.

He approaches one of the Yellow lion’s dashboards, pointedly _ignoring_ Hunk’s question, and places something on its unlit surface. It’s a small metal piece - weirdly wrought, fried likely, like from a power blowout.

“Wait is that from the Yellow lion? Did you take that from the Yellow lion? Wait - did you _fix_ the Yellow Lion?”

The weblum galra doesn’t answer any of Hunk’s new questions but stares at Hunk instead, as if confirming it. Huh. 

“Hey-ey look Keith your buddy fixed the Yellow Lion-”

Hunk turns to Keith but he’s not listening. Broken out of his frozen spell, he opts to _glare_ at the weblum galra. The weblum galra stands still, his blackened helmet a mask against any visible emotion. Was he glaring too? Must be, cause Keith’s own glare deepens at it. 

Did - did something happen between the two of them when he’d been out? 

“What you two have a galra fight or something while I was out?,” Hunk snickers at his own joke. But that only gets the both of them to turn their glaring at _him._ He flinches, and they turn back to glaring at each other again. 

Uh-huh, they definitely had a fight. 

The galra’s the first to break away though, after what felt like hours, deciding whatever the outside space had was infinitely more interesting than either of them. Keith doesn’t move however.

“What’re you looking at?” Hunk asks, deciding that between the two angry galra, Galra Buddy was likely the safer bet here. 

He didn’t need to ask because the next second, a shadow passes over the Yellow Lion, answering his question for him. The distant nebulas, lit up by the glow of newly born stars and once visible from the cockpit are quickly overshadowed by a dark void, enveloping the once brightened cockpit in darkness. Oh _that_ was not good. Just as quickly it’s gone, relighting the cockpit.

“Uhh, I’m not the only one who just saw that right?” Hunk asks, turning to both the galra and Keith, pointing a trembling finger towards the window. “ _Right?_ ” 

Hunk sees the shadow pass over Galra Buddy first, more slowly this time. And is that a red dot he sees? Oh it definitely is. But it's gone again just as quickly. Just like the shadow. The three of them wait. It doesn’t return. Hunk lets go of his breath.

“What. Was that?” Keith asks, after what feels like a long time.

“I don’t know but thankfully it’s gone now and hopefully will never come back… right?” Hunk replies. At that, darkness falls over and up his face and he gulps. _Oh_ he’d spoken _too_ soon.

“It’s back again!” Keith yells, and the galra jumps into a defensive position, which Keith matches. Not that that’ll do much against a giant outer space shadow thing. 

“Maybe we’re judging it wrong? Maybe it’s friendly?” Hunk tries to reason, trying to not focus on how the shadow hasn’t moved away like it did the last time and is staying right in front of them. 

Huge red eyes emerge from the darkness. Thin black pupils swim in hideous green irises. It uncoils, unveiling a giant slithering creature - furry or feathery, he couldn’t tell - positioned right in front of the yellow lion. It opens its mouth, revealing huge rows of gaping daggers of teeth. 

“IT’S NOT FRIENDLY!!” Hunk screeches, throwing himself back into his lion’s seat and automatically grabbing the control bars. 

“MOVE!” Keith shouts, getting Hunk drift. 

Hunk pushes the handles. They creak, but they don’t activate anything. “I can’t! My lion’s busted!”

“Try connecting with it!”

“I can’t, I’m too scared!!! Can’t-”

The monster rams into the yellow lion. The impact flips Hunk out of the driver’s seat and slams all three of them to the back wall. 

Another shove. The Yellow lion metal groans and they plant onto the floor. 

And another. Hunk groans as he slides across the floor. The dashboard knocks the remaining air out of him when he hits it. 

The shadow crosses over the front again, and rams this time Yellow’s side, throwing the three of them up against the wall again. Pinned against Galra Buddy, Hunk sees stars, planets, and space debris wisp by the window.

They were spinning far away from the weblum.

“We’ve gotta do something before we’re even more lost” Hunk cries.

“What!?” Keith replies, his voice shrill.

“Allura and the castle won’t be able to find us if we’re shoved further from where the yellow lion last operated-!” Hunk adds. 

The monster rams into them a third time. They’re thrown forwards. Then backwards as the lion bounces off a meteoroid, hurling them deeper into space.

“-Ngggh! What are supposed to do?” Keith asks, as they’re face-planted against the cockpit’s back wall again.

“I don’t know!” Hunk cries. He looks to Galra buddy again, who _somehow_ manages to get on his arm computer, and is now quickly typing away at something. “What do you-”

The shadow monster hits them again, cutting off Hunk’s question and the yellow lion jerks again. But this time, Hunk anticipates it. He grabs Keith and then Galra Buddy and pulls them both close as the impact sends them flying against the other side of the lion again. If they’re gonna be thrown around like bean bags, at least they’ll be together for it right?

“Please come back buddy boy” Hunk pleads with the yellow lion as the three of them are bounced off the dashboard again. With his arm still around Galra Buddy’s midriff, he tries to rub the dashboard for good measure.

No response.

The shadow monster rams into the Yellow Lion again and they’re again thrown off into the side of the cockpit. 

Hunk winces. This was turning out to be just like his escapade with Lance on that mermaid planet when they were all separated that one time after fighting Zarkon. _Only worse. So so much worse._

“Hunk on your six!”

Hunk looks up to see what Keith’s pointing at - they were being flung closer and closer to a reddish planet.

“We must be getting caught on that planet’s gravitational field!” Hunk points out “We-re gonna crash onto its surface! O-ho we’re gonna die!”

“Hunk! Control yourself” Keith barks, but it was hard to when he was squirming in Hunk’s arms.

Red gas - and is that yellow fog? Smoke? Spores? Envelop the yellow lion. Hunk could see the surface - twinking with yellow lights like far-away fireflies - come closer and closer.

“Everyone brace for impact!” Keith screams. 

The last thing Hunk remembers seeing before blacking out is Galra Buddy still typing away at something on their armband computer below Keith, who's clinging onto the side of the dashboard out of Hunk’s grip now - his eyes sealed shut. Oh he did get the _worst_ solo missions.

And then darkness again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long absence. I have been very busy and/or unfocused so I haven't been able to write much at all. This fic, though, has been under construction since May, where I had a boost of creative fervor. I wasn't planning on publishing it while the rest of the fic remains unfinished originally, but if I know someone's reading, I might be more productive in finishing it. Maybe. I don't know. Title would likely end up changing though. Not really satisfied with it.
> 
> Name of the chapter though, is loosely based on the title of [Twist of Fate](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zISPKtN_QRI) by Olivia Newton John (1983).
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy it so far and please leave constructive criticism, any thoughts, or point out any grammatical or syntactic errors I might of missed while editing it.
> 
> As always you can catch me on twitter at [Deevulture](https://twitter.com/DeeVulture)


	2. Wanted Dead or Alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marooned on a desolate planet, Keith, Hunk, and Acxa must learn what they're up against.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Disclaimer:** _This fanfiction is for entertainment purposes only. I do not own_ Voltron: Legendary Defender _or any characters thereof._
> 
> Note for Reference: Horizontal Lines are for character point of view changes. Dotted lines are for timeskips/scene changes. 
> 
> I wrote this work so please do not repost.

_Something’s off._

Keith bolts up. But only for every bit of him to scream in protest. And he's back down again. His head might as well have been split open, the way the pain bounces around in his skull and the waves of dizziness course through his body. 

“Got to get back to the Castle-” he mutters. With a bit of effort he’s back to sitting up on his elbows as the fog in his head clears up. He flips over to his stomach. “Hunk!” A groan from behind tips him off. Dragging himself over there, Keith finds Hunk face-down besides the yellow lion’s chair. “All you alright? Hunk!”

He barely makes out the muffled groan before the body stirs next to him. “M’okay” Hunk slurs, trying to balance on his forearms. “I’m okay.”

“Can you get up?” Keith asks. He gets up, more like stumble up actually, and offers a hand out to the other paladin. 

“Y-yeah,” The reply comes almost as a wheeze, but Hunk ends up taking Keith’s hand anyways and he hoists him back up. 

“We’ve got to contact Allura and the Castle of Lions to come pick us up.” Keith says, turning back to the Yellow lion’s dashboard. No doubt the crash must’ve done a number on it. It’s busted again - the lights are flickering, but at least he could get a look at the outside. Judging by the reddish glow, the planet’s got some kind of atmosphere. Not too far from their original location if they’re lucky.

A short “ow” drags Keith back to Hunk, who’s fighting his own battle with his back, now locked mid-stretch. “You alright Hunk?” Keith tilts his head. With the dim lights, it’s hard to get a good read on Hunk’s face, but he’s pretty sure he’s bruised up from the crash. Maybe even from before. 

Hunk lets out a hiss as he lowers his arms. “Wha-? Yeah, yeah I’m good I’m good” Hunk says as he holds his hands out in front of him. “Thanks Keith.” Keith watches as Hunk takes in a deep breath the flinch at the slight crack his back makes at that. 

“I said - we’ve got to get in touch with the Castle as quickly as possible if we want to pull ahead on the mission.” He continues without a beat. Allura would be furious if they were late, and he’s already under the fire with her as it is. Last thing he needs is to give her more fuel to hate him.

“Yeah that’s gonna be a problem. To contact the castle we need the Yellow Lion and as we can see,” at this Hunk motions towards the turned-off dashboard, “the Yellow Lion’s broken. Your galra buddy-”

“He’s not my buddy.” Keith cuts in. After running away when they needed the help the most, he wouldn’t be so quick to call him an _ally_. And hitching a ride on the Yellow Lion at the end definitely doesn’t help his cause. 

“Anyways,” Hunk continues, ignoring Keith’s huff. “If it weren’t for him, I don’t think we would even have the lights back on. I saw him put a part, a piece, something on the dashboard before that scary monster thing attacked us and I think that had to do with something that got us the lights back.

Speaking of him, um where did he go?” Hunk adds, looking around.

“What?” Keith whips his head towards the back end of the cockpit. In his fight to get up, he failed to notice that they’re the only two left in the Lion. And sure enough, no weblum galra. “Probably long gone by now.” Keith reasons, turning back to Hunk. Even if he had helped them, it wouldn’t surprise him that he’d ditched them when he’s got the chance. Though why he would help them at all - he, he couldn’t really figure that one out. 

“You think?” Hunk postures, bringing Keith out of his thoughts. “We’re kind of, you know, stranded here. Since we crash landed and all.”

“ _We_ can’t focus on that right now. If this whole mission to defeat Zarkon is gonna work we’ve got to get back as fast as possible. _”_ Keith presses, hoping to move the conversation away from the missing galra.

“What did you guys have a fight or something when I was gone? You were practically glaring at him before that scary monster attacked us.” Hunk teased, dodging the signal to change topics.

“No! Well, he stole a bag of scaultrite the first time. He probably left to finish that.” Keith snaps. 

“Alright alright I was just asking ‘kay?” Hunk holds his hands out in defense. “He did help us you know. I was wondering, he could, you know, help us again?” he asks, uncertainly creeping into his voice. 

“Well he’s long gone now. Can you fix the Yellow Lion?” Keith presses, folding his arms out in front of him. 

“Hm? Oh yeah I can. It’ll just take a while you know. Got to run a diagnostic first. That'll add some time” Hunk says, his chin in his hand now and the other resting underneath its elbow. “Hmm yeah and without your buddy here,” Keith groans at this, but he’s ignored again, “I’m gonna have to figure what he started to do and build off that. If he got the lights up and running that fast hopefully the rest isn’t so bad off.”

“Good. You work on that. I’ll check the perimeter. See what we’re dealing with here.” Keith states. He stays only to get an affirmation out of Hunk before heading out. 

What they’re dealing with, turns out, stinks. As in, literally stinks. The first whiff he gets at the mouth of the Yellow lion before exiting reeks of dead carcasses, like those of animals he’d find occasionally back on Earth. But this was worse. The stench permeates through his helmet, clawing its way through the air vents even when his helmet activates interior air circulation. “That’s not a good sign.” he mutters to himself. “Better keep my guard up.” He exits out of the Yellow Lion's mouth.

“ _What_ -” he wheezes, “ _-is this-?_ ”

Towering fruiting bodies of varying shades of unnerving green, yellow, and pink loom over him. Some have wide fanning caps with gills oozing out a sickly red slime. Red spores they’re - they choke the fresh air out his lungs. Coughing doesn’t seem to clear it up. That’s - that isn’t good. He should-

He turns away, only to stumble over a piece of mushroom. He looks up and sees the outstretched paw of the Yellow Lion. It crashed into a clearing, but not without casualty. Pieces of mushroom stew all over the place - he’s lucky he didn’t trip on a bigger one. Or on a rock. It really did a number on the ground, carving up big chunks of dirt and rocks, stewed all over the places.

There, there really aren't many trees he realizes. Or any plants at all. Even the grass under his feet seems to be some sort of sickly yellow mold. The same mold can be seen growing on undisturbed surface rocks. 

“Must be- some kind of mushroom forest.” Keith muses out loud. A glint of light catches his eyes. He blinks. He turns away, but it doesn’t stop bothering his eye. He tracks it up to the top of the Yellow Lion’s head. 

Someone’s up there. 

He instantly draws his bayard and gets into a stance. Then recognition dawns on him. “What was all that about?! Back there, in the weblum?!” Keith asks, half calls.

The Galra from the Weblum doesn’t respond. The longer he stares, the easier it is to make out his silhouette in the spore haze. He’s not paying attention. The galra’s data pad apparently more interesting than anything Keith's got to say. 

He frowns, and is about to ask another question when the light catches his eye again. He's got something in his hand, Keith realizes. Sure enough, the other galra holds up something - looks like a metal tube, and spins it carefully in his hands. He types something else in his data pad. 

“You’re,” Keith begins. But the galra doesn’t wait for him to finish. Without acknowledging him, he turns around and blasts off into the forest. “Wait where are you-?”

“Keith! There you are! I’ve finished checking the Yellow Lion and I’ve got some good news and bad news.” Hunk emerges from the Yellow lion’s mouth at the same moment. He coughs. “Oof, this place stinks like rotten eggs.” He gags.

Keith gives one more look at the Yellow Lion’s head before turning to Hunk. “Which is?” He asks, folding his arms out in front of him. 

Hunk lets out another cough. “You want the good news or bad news?” 

With the mess they're in, he’d like some good news right now. “Good news.” Keith says.

“Well the good news is that I’ve figured out what’s wrong with the Yellow Lion. He’s got fried wiring in his power core - that’s got to be replaced. But! I can make a temporary fix that can get us to the Castle when they can come pick us up.” Hunk says, holding up a finger. He balls it into a fist and covers his mouth with it when he lets out another gag. “ _Oh this place is_ -”

“And the bad news?” Keith asks, not waiting for a distraction. 

“ _I’m okay, I’m okay._ ” Hunk takes in a deep breath before continuing. “The bad news is that well, he’s in pretty bad shape. Hopefully when we get back to the Castle Pidge and I can fix him, but I don’t know how long that’s going to take. There’s this real weird issue with the power render- it’s this part that renders power from the power core to the dashboard - well, it’s kind of missing-”

The metal tube. “He’s taken it!” Keith blurts out. He blasts his jetpack up and after the weblum galra.

“Wait what? Who?” Hunk calls, before blasting after him. “Keith! Keith, wait up!”

He can’t wait though. It’s a race in the forest. Keith finds the galra quickly. They’re blasting from mushroom head to mushroom head. 

“Hey-! Stop!” Keith yells after them. He ignores him, blasting away farther and farther. With a growl, Keith blasts up onto a higher mushroom, and follows in on the same level. But the elevation change pastes a layer of wet spores on his helmet. Keith tries to wipe it away. It smears. Through the clear lines he can see the galra getting away. “You're not - getting away - so easily!” he growls. He blasts after him again.

But the spores had bought him time, and the galra disappears into the thickening spore haze. 

“Ugh!! Where is he?!!” Keith cries out, stopping when he reaches a small clearing.

“W-here is who -wai - o-oh -” Hunk pants, bending over and placing his hands on his knees. “-so tired.” He says, coughing out a fit. 

Keith looks around. Just a rustle of some mushroom stalk - or some spore pop - would be enough to get him back on track. But he hears only some bugs buzzing somewhere.

“Who’s-” Another cough. “Who’s taken it?” Hunk asks when he catches his breath again. With a sigh he stretches up straight again.

Keith squints towards the distance. “He did. The galra from the weblum,” he replies. He walks over to the edge of the mushroom cap and leans over to get a good view of the scenery ahead.

“Wait really? Why would he steal that for?”

He sees something. Keith blasts onto the next mushroom, ignoring Hunk’s protest. It’s gone. The fungi forest is nothing but a dark red expanse - the spore cover only makes it harder to spot anyone.

“Maybe,” Hunk blasts onto the mushroom next to him. “Maybe, he’s trying to help us again? You know since he helped with the yellow lion before?” Hunks asks, a hopful optimism in his tone.

Keith shakes his head. “Doubt it. He plans to do something with it.”

“You think? Why would he-”

“He’s already stolen some of the scaultrite. Back in the weblum.” Keith continues, walking to the edge of the mushroom.

“Wait really?” Hunk asks, breaking through his thoughts. “Since when?”

“When you got shot - he took a bag and left. After he showed me off.” Keith says. He reaches the end of the mushroom - a taller one. If he times his jump just right he could reach it, and get a better view of the forest.

“ _Huh._ Then he comes back and fixes the yellow lion. That’s - that's pretty weird don’t you think?”

“Yeah.” Keith says. A rustle in the mushrooms catches his attention, but nothing comes from it. 

“Maybe he had a change of heart? Felt bad after you saved him and all?” Hunk suggests, following him across the mushroom.

“Nah. There has to be a motive behind it - he’s galra. He’s gonna report it to Zarkon.” Keith replies, a little bit of bitterness seeping into his tone. Turns out, all the galra he’s met, all of they’ve tried to hurt him one way or another. And he’s no different. 

“With the power render of the Yellow Lion? I don’t think that’ll be a great help to Zarkon or anything.” Hunk reasons.

“ _I don’t know okay?”_ Keith snaps. Stupid spores. He can’t see a thing through them. “Look, for the Yellow Lion to work, we need the piece right?” He waits for Hunk’s nod of confirmation. “ _So we have to get him okay?_ ” 

“ _Got it._ ” Hunk smartly quiets after that. 

Keith turns back to the forest. He coughs. _He’s got to be here somewhere-_

“You’d think, with the two of you being galra you’d find each other quickly huh?” Hunk teases. 

Keith snaps his head back at him with a glare. But before he could yell back at him, a small dot in the distance behind Hunk catches his attention. 

“There!” Keith cries. He uses his jetpack to leap over Hunk - ignoring the other’s cry of indignation in the process - and blasts towards the dot.

He’s got to get the piece back. He’s the reason why they’re in this mess. If he hadn’t saved the other gal- no he couldn’t have left them there. Not to die like that. But now they were in this mess and he’s got to get them out of it. Their whole plan depended on it. _The universe_ depended on it. He ignores the growing pit in his stomach and presses on ahead.

* * *

She shouldn’t be wasting her time on this.

Acxa propels herself from mushroom to mushroom, carefully timing each blast so that she lands securely on the fungus in front of her. 

She should be on the Royal Cruiser, handing the scaultrite over to Lotor. And afterwards, beginning the onto phase of their plan. Not helping the enemy escape from a mess of their own design when her personally assigned mission has been jeopardized. 

But she’s not, because apparently she lacks any type of self-restraint. A failure in two respects.

She pauses when the foliage changes, and the mushrooms develop spiked webbing instead of caps. It mumbles in the background. A flurry warps the spore haze into angry coils. 

It’s only restitutional. Once she is through with them, she will return to the Royal Cruiser and return the needed scaultrite to Lotor. She will _not_ be swayed by the manipulations of the enemy.

She _is_ behind schedule however. Marooned on Fyxian VII - a rocky planet with a volatile magnetic field and an atmosphere saturated with a potentially toxic level of sporic aerosols that distort sensors, wreaking havoc on navigational sensors. Any wrong action here could lead to her forfeiting her mission forever. 

Ezor and Zethrid would laugh at her. Lotor would be _furious_.

She exhales sharply through her nose, and coughs. She can’t focus on that right now. She has already cemented her position in all this the moment she stepped foot inside the lion. Now she must detangle herself from it. Especially with has no other method in sending for Lotor otherwise. 

But to do that, she must find a replacement for the lion’s power render. There is another crash not too far east from the Lion that could carry a usable replacement. Possibly. Her scanners had only so much time to map out the planet and detect any evidence of prior alien activity- let alone determine if she could reap anything useful from them. 

If there wasn’t, she could rewire a temporary solution from any viable scrap metal. She’ll rely on her instincts, if necessary. Which shouldn’t be a problem. She’s been in similar circumstances in the past. 

Acxa stares out into the distance. It was difficult to assess, given the density of the spore cover, but she could see rows of fruiting bodies - some smooth, others with webbed indusium, others growing in clusters - making up the canopy of the fungi forest. A few others, taller ones with spiked scales, break through the monotony. She glances back at her computer. 

And if _that_ fails, she’ll just rot away the rest of her days here. Dis

_Splat!_

She recoils. Her foot slips at the cap’s edge but not over. For she anticipates such behavior from a rot-infested planet. Her nostrils flare at its woody, carcass-like stench. It’s a mess of guttation, likely weeped from a taller fungus. The black mask of her helmet’s reflection reholsters its blaster just like she does.

She should keep going. 

A warning alarm goes off in her computer as she’s about to launch herself onto the next mushroom. She brings it up again. 

The red screen bears a cursory map - hastily rendered before the yellow lion’s crash. An avatar icon hovers over a predetermined route. Besides it, a yellow dot blinks on the other side of a zigzagged line meant to be a deep escarpment. She looks up. 

There’s a large mass descending through the spore-dense fog in the distance. A new biorhythm must be arriving from the upper atmosphere. It disappears into the forest northeast of her current location.

_Hmm._

She mentally makes a note to monitor it as she blasts over to the next mushroom. 

As she takes a step, a mushroom head resembling a stalk with spore puffs pasted onto its branches, erupts beside her. Thousands of spores particules cloud her vision and the reek of dung fills her nostrils. Acxa instinctively sneezes. 

And suddenly, she feels light. She shakes her head. It dashes away the remnant spore cloud circulating around it. Black spots dot her vision. Her legs feel heavy.

She narrows her eyes. _She’s…allowing this...get to...her head._ Stick to the plan. She’ll get through it faster if she does. 

Besides, the next mushroom is close. She can clear the jump. 

Acxa leaps off the mushroom head. But where she expects spongy mushroom, her feet meet air. A moment of panic, and she ricochets off something _hard._ Her head spins. Quickly, she reaches out. Her hands wrap around a spike - _the fungus_ \- and _pulls._

She hauls onto her back in between the spikes. She coughs, almost chokes. Maybe…she’ll wait.

A dobosh passes before she pulls herself to standing with only a little bit of lightheadedness. Tentatively she takes a leap to another mushroom head. She lands on the mushroom with only a sneeze. She’s _fine_. 

And she is more than _fine_ , the further along she travels. The illness-like symptoms dissipates the further down the route she goes. Away from the spore eruption. Deeper into the forest.

It doesn’t take too long to notice the change in the foliage. Those spore-puff fungi are becoming increasingly more common, replacing those with the massive caps she had been using to speed up her travel.

A problem. She’d just walk instead.

She blows air out through her nose. And coughs. She lands on the ground. Traveling to the crash site was going to take longer than initially anticipated. But if she keeps up the pace, she should be back at the Yellow Lion’s crash site by nightfall. 

Or what passes as nightfall. Another detail her scanners did not have the time to pick up before they crashed onto the surface. 

Speeding up again, Acxa monitors the area around warily. Not only were those tree-like fungi becoming increasingly more frequent, other types of fungi were emerging as well - more serpent like, with long pink tentacles. She eyes some suspicious white bulbs warily. The spore cover thickens as well, turning a blood-like hue from the previous red-like. Navigation is becoming more difficult - Acxa can only visualize her surroundings up to a foot or so in from her - and that was being generous. Acxa sneezes.

She needs to keep moving. 

Dread starts building up in her, but with a shake of her head, she presses onward. As long as she sticks to the route, she should be fine. She unholsters her blaster regardless. 

Something wraps itself around her ankle. She shoots at it. A piece of tentacle flies back at her. It ricochets off her helmet and she flinches. _Hm._

It would be better to run instead. Avoid unnecessary. The spore cover doesn’t let up, thickening with each new step she takes. Nothing reaches out for her. It hits her that her visual field’s gone along with head on the stalk of a fungus she didn’t know was in front of her.

A viscous, white liquid oozes from the stalk and all over her helmet. A nasty pop, and more guttation splatters as she pulls away. She rubs furiously at her helmet, ignoring the small voice in her head warning her against it. She ends up smearing it against her helmet.

She sighs deeply. She did _not_ need this right now. Shaking her hand to get rid of the excess sap, it dawns on her.

The power render. She’s dropped it.

Panic seizes her, and she quickly scans the area surrounding her. Her heart slows when her eyes lay upon a coiled metal shape not a foot away from her. 

Reaching down to pick it up, a blackened haze sweeps over her vision. She stills herself to keep from collapsing forward onto her face as the wave of dizziness washes over her. 

_She. Is. Fine_.

Picking up the power render, she stumbles into a standing position again.

It’s nothing… _it’s nothing_.

Her skin’s become clammy. Her head’s spinning. Her lungs constrict in her chest. She sits. To figure out. Her position. 

She needs to get out of here. 

... _Another way to the crash site…._ Her computer only reflects static. _Interference…._

There’s a rustle in the forest behind her.

Acxa‘s immediately up, but stumbles again as her vision’s blurs.

Gripping the power render tighter She stands alert awaiting the threat.

Rustling again. Louder. A voice too, somewhat faint.

_Who?_

Spores fly revealing Keith launching himself as her with a growl. He swings his sword at her. She blocks it with her blaster.

He shoves away her blaster and throws a punch. She catches it in her other hand. Her head spins. She puts all her strength into pushing him back. 

“Keith!” At being called, Keith instinctively turns away from Acxa. A mistake. 

She sweeps his feet. Keith falls forward with a yelp. She aims her blaster directly at his head.

“No-no-no stop!” A heavy weight presses against and the next thing she knows she’s falling. Falling over air it seems. 

Someone screams. 

Her head crunches on something.

Then. Dark.

* * *

Oh this is bad. 

They were rolling. Rolling. Rolling down the side of a cliff Hunk didn’t even _know_ was _there_ . There were _rocks_ . Pointy sharp rocks that _oh so hurt_. Since when was there even a cliff???

This was totally _not_ \- he hits something on the cliff - what he had in mind . _What was he thinking_ …. throwing himself at the galra...what - another hit -what did he _expect_ was gonna happen?

He lands on the galra with a loud _crunch_ at the bottom of the ravine.

 _Oh he’s definitely broken something_.

“Hunk!” Keith calls out above him. “What? _Why would you??-”_

 _Being dumb actually._ Hunk groans. Every part of him screams in agony. Oh he’s pretty certain he can’t get up. Probably broken every bone in his body right now. He watches instead as Keith lands besides them.

“ _Wha- what - what were you thinking_ ? Charging at us like that?” Keith angrily sputters. He stomps in a line next to Hunk, throwing his arms up in anger. “You could’ve _died_ _!_ “

Hunk doesn’t move, _he can’t move_ , and when Keith notices this apparently, he stops his pacing. “Are you alright?” Keith asks. He doesn’t wait for an answer before crouching down to get a better look at Hunk. He then lends out his hand.

“I’m-” Hunk takes it and attempts to stand only for his legs to give in underneath him. He doesn’t fall flat on his face by sheer virtue of Keith catching his arm before he collapses, choosing instead to haul Hunk up himself. He keeps a hand on Hunk’s shoulder as Hunk regains his bearings. “Who-oa,” Hunks says, as he steadies himself. “Thanks Keith.”

“No problem. Here.” Keith says and holds out his other hand. It’s a piece of metal tubing.

“The power render! Oh you’ve found it!” Hunk says and takes it from Keith and examines it in his own hands.

“He dropped it when you charged at him,” Keith signals with his head towards the ground where the galra’s still face planting there. “What were you even _trying_ to do??” 

“Trying to get you guys to stop fighting.” Hunks replies. He holds up his hands in a “stop” gesture when Keith glares at him. “I didn’t have many options, ‘kay? Couldn’t see anything. Hard to breathe. Was the only thing that came to mind.” 

Keith huffs and crosses his arms with a disapproving frown, but otherwise leaves it at that. It allows Hunk to return to the power render. It’s in one piece, thankfully. But like some other parts of Yellow’s control board, is blacked and its melted end is coiled in a direction Hunk’s pretty sure is not supposed to be directing towards. 

“It’s pretty banged up.” Keith points out.

“Yeah it really is.” Hunk flips the render and runs his hand over the melted part. “Oh this isn’t good…”

“Can you fix it?” Keith asks, concerned etched on his face.

“I - I don’t know. It’s in pretty bad shape. The flixigard - that’s the main tubing that manages the flow of the energy from the crystal to the rest of the lion - is pretty much all melted through. And that’s ignoring all the other fried parts. I think, I think it has to be replaced.” Hunk explains flipping the render over again in his hand.

Keith bristles at that. “What - _what_ are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to call on the castle now?! The mission-”

“ _I don’t know, ‘kay?_ ” Hunk snaps. “We’ve got to think this through. But I think, I think your buddy knew - _knows -_ what to do - or had a plan or something.” Hunk says, turning to the other galra, who’s _still_ nestled in the cracked imprint of body on the ground. And otherwise had not made so much as a twitch to get up. “Uh, is he-?”

“ _We can’t trust him._ He’s not, _trustworthy_ . ” Keith says. “He could’ve been trying to sell us out with it while we were out. What are you _doing_?”

“Do you think he’s okay? He hasn’t moved or anything.” Hunk asks, poking the other galra in the side. “Do you think he’s dead? _Oh God do we have to carry a dead_ \- wait, wait nevermind he’s not dead.” Hunk says watching the galra back rise and fall slowly. 

Hunk flips the galra over. His helmet - its facial part still blackened through as when they first met him - is still in one piece, even if it had some more scratches than before. It’s covered in some weird white goo, which is _gross_ , and with some clumps of dirt (he hopes it’s dirt) stuck onto the goo. The rest of him seemed fine though - except for the pieces of metal lying next to his arm.

“He’s fine, I think?” Hunk says, distinctly aware that Keith’s hovering over him. There’s a cracking sound and Hunk lifts the galra’s arm and several pieces of space plastic fall out from a cracked web in the galra’s computer. He tries to put the piece back but only succeeds in pushing out more plastic. “Uhh, I think broke something?”

Keith shrugs. “There’s nothing you can do. Besides, it’s probably for the best. Won’t be able to contact Zarkon that way.” 

“You think?” Hunk asks, laying the galra’s arm down gently over their chest. He’s a distinct itch to wipe away the dirt from his helmet, but he’d rather not touch the goo if he didn’t have to. “What do you think we should do with him?”

“Take him back to the Yellow Lion. You sure you can’t fix it on your own?” Keith asks. He continues when Hunk gives a confirming shake of his head. “See if he knows something. You're carrying him?”

Hunk stands up, Galra Buddy cradled in his arms. “What? He’s out cold you know. Can’t really walk.” Hunks says, feeling the galra’s weight in his arms. 

He was pretty light, Keith’s buddy. To be fair, Hunk didn’t know what to expect as he’s never had to carry a galra before now. But aren’t they supposed to be heavier, considering you know, they were big and all?

Now that he’s thinking about it, he _was_ pretty short for a galra. Those Blade of Mamora guys they’re team up with now - they were _so_ much bigger than this galra. So much bigger than Keith.

 _Heh_. Keith the smallest galra. 

“What’s so funny?” Keith questions.

“Oh nothing. Just thinking about how you’re probably the smallest galra to ever exist.” Hunk grins.

“What? I’m not - _urgh_ . Let’s just get back - _let's_ get back to the Yellow Lion okay?” Keith snaps, his voice breaking mid-sentence. He crosses his arms again and pivots on his heel, but even with his back turned away Hunk could see how he’s heaving.

“Um are you okay?” Hunk asks, “You’re breathing weird.” 

Keith’s chest rose and fell quickly. Hunk could hear through the intercom that he’s panting. And is that wheezing that Hunk heard? 

“-’m _fine_. Let’s just get out of here okay?” Keith wheezes, still not turning around. Yeah definitely breathing funny.

“You’re clearly not fine but yeah I’m totally with you there. This place’s giving me the creeps” Hunk says, looking around.

Giant, tree-like mushrooms with spore-like shrubs loom over them, their red spores casting an eerie red nasty fog on the air around them. There were a lot of them, more than where they left the yellow lion behind. And is that weird gross slime dangling from underneath the round ones? Oh that is _so_ gross _-_ the smell is enough to make him gag. _Oh no don’t throw up, don’t throw up-_

Hunk clutches the galra to his chest as he bends over and dry heaves. 

“Hunk!” Keith spins back around. He coughs, dry and nasty. That’s not a good sign. “ _Let’s go_!” 

Hunk takes a deep breath. “Let’s go, Galra Buddy.” He says, looking down at the galra. 

He doesn’t respond.

At the same moment a line of that gross mucous goo thing falls off a mushroom and splatters next to them. He jumps away with a squeak. Hunk holds up the galra as protection and gags again. 

“ _Hunk!”_

“I’m coming! I’m coming!” Oh he does _not_ like this place. He catches a glimpse of Keith turning a corner around a mushroom stalk and disappears into the forest. “Keith! Slow down!”

He follows Keith through and around the ginormous mushrooms, and over and under fallen mushroom stalks. Keith blasting from mushroom cap to mushroom cap, while Hunk wheezing down on the ground behind him. At least the spores were going back to its pinkish red hue instead of bloody red. His breathing feels freer too. 

And Keith seems to be feeling better too. Judging by how farther away he was getting. 

_Wait._

“Keith! Wait up! I can’t - I can’t keep up! Keith!” Hunk blasts up onto short, green mushroom. “Keith!” 

He’s met with only the sound of his voice echoing through the trees.

“Oh yeah sure just leave me behind to find the Yellow Lion. That’s cool. Don’t mind me being here in the middle of a creepy, nasty forest with no one but the unconscious body of your mysterious galra friend who steals important stuff off allies but _the mission_ right _?_ ” Hunk mutters crossly, flipping the galra’s body when he starts sliding off his arms. 

At that, the forest comes alive with loud whispers. 

He freezes. _“Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out_.” Hunk whispers to himself, clutching the galra tighter to himself like his life depended on him. He quickly whips around.

The whispers collectively silence.

Hunk turns back around. “Okay, now _that_ is freaky. Don’t you think so Mysterious Galra from the weblum?” Hunk glances down at the galra. 

Now that he thinks about it, this galra’s pretty weird huh? Lost in a giant space worm. Steals stuff. Disappears randomly. Weird armor. Blue and gray and orange colors...big shoulder pads. That's some acquired taste right there. Never, seen that before. _Hmm._ Must be Space Punk.

And yet… he just didn’t set off any warning bells in Hunk. It’s not like he hasn’t done any strange stuff either. And he fixed the dashboard of the Yellow lion...well he took the power render, but that was afterwards, after the crash. It’s not like he could run away with it right?

Could it be that he’s a space vigilante maybe? Space Punk AND Space Vigilante, that can be a thing right? 

“Who are you, Galra Buddy?” Hunk asks, staring at the darkened visor blocking the guy’s face. Now that he thought about that was kind of weird too. Why would he hide it? Keith saved him and all, he’s got nothing to hide with them. 

Guess he’s just shy. That’s a thing galra can be right? Keith’s quiet. The Blade are quiet… but they weren’t really _shy._ Maybe Galra Buddy is though. And quiet. 

Galra Buddy. That’s not his name either. Never told them actually. Now that he thinks about it he’s never talked right? Galra Buddy works find and well, he _is_ Keith’s Galra Buddy that he saved from the weblum after all. But he’s got to have a name. Everyone does…and he’s got to use one, especially if they were gonna be working on the Yellow Lion and all. Right?

“Hunk!” Keith calls, emerging from the forest behind Hunk and landing on the mushroom beside him. “ _What are you doing?!”_

Hunk quickly lets go of the galra’s shirt collar. “Just checking if he’s got a tag on his shirt or something like that. You know how some people write their names on their shirt tags right? Maybe he’s written it on his?” He suggests. 

“ _We don’t have time for this_ . _We've got to get back to the Yellow Lion_. Fix it and get back to finishing the mission and then go and take down Zarkon.” Keith snaps, his voice rising at the end.

“I know I know, okay? You were going _way_ too fast and I couldn’t keep up okay?. Besides, I don’t think we’re getting any closer to the Yellow Lion” Hunk points to the green mushroom below him. “I’m pretty sure we’ve passed by this mushroom like, at least five times already. 

I don’t know about you but I think, I think we have no idea where the Yellow Lion is.” Hunk concludes. 

That last bit stops Keith in his tracks. He opens his mouth but then closes it. He looks away, as if trying to think of something.

“What do you think we should do?” Hunk asks. 

Keith doesn’t answer, lost in thought. He turns around and walks away from Hunk, in the opposite direction from where Hunk stood with the galra, seemingly looking around. 

“Keith?” Hunk asks.

“This way!” Keith says suddenly, cutting Hunk off. He blasts away on his jetpack leaving Hunk and Galra Buddy behind again.

“Oh come on! Keith!” Hunk cries out, clutching Galra Buddy closer and firing his blasters after Keith. They end up blasting through the forest at high speeds, Keith leading the way and Hunk never quite catching up with him, trailing behind trying _not_ to drop the Galra Buddy onto the far down ground.

After like 15 minutes of this, Keith lands on the ground, pausing at a clearing.

Hunk stops after him, wheezing and heaving. “Keith! Oh my legs… oh they’re gonna fall off....” He heaves. If he weren’t carrying Galra Buddy he’d probably fallen on his face right now. He might actually do it now that he thinks about it. “Keith…”

“Quiet.” Keith says, glancing towards Hunk slightly, but his back still turned towards him. “Do you hear that?”

There was no sound. Almost eerie quiet in fact. 

“I don’t hear nothing- wait are you talking about the whispering?!”

Keith turns around with a confused face. “The _what_?”

Galra Buddy starts sliding off his arms again and Hunk flips him back up. “Yeah the weird, freaky whispering thing this part of the forest does. Was listening to it with Galra Buddy here when you left us behind back there. Alone. In a scary forest. Just pointing that out.” 

That only makes the crinkles in Keith’s face deeper, and he quickly turns to the forest. Which quickly quiets when turns around. 

There's - there actually something different about this part of the forest, now that Hunk looks at it. The reddish-pink haze had given away to almost a pale pinkish glow. The mushrooms - nowhere near as imposing as the other places they’ve been so far here, twinkle in the light of the moon above.

Wait since when could they see the _moon_ here? 

Something snaps. 

It jolts Hunk and he almost drops Galra Buddy. “Wha-a-a-t’s that?” He clutches Galra Buddy closer to his chest. 

“Look’s like we got company.” Keith says, activating his bayard and getting into a defense stance.

The mushrooms at the front explode. Fungi meat flies towards them as a black mass hurls towards them from the fungi-work. 

A scream curdles in Hunk’s throat.

The monster slithers in front of them, arching its back, claws outstretched. Moonshine rippled across its jet black fur. Red eyes stared unblinking at them.

It also happens to be about the size of the yellow lion.

“Run!” Keith shouts. Oh he didn’t have to tell Hunk twice. 

They hear the monster roaring behind them as the disappear into the forest. Keith’s leading again, Hunk trailing behind. Using their jetpacks, hopping from mushroom cap to mushroom cap for the added speed. 

It isn’t enough though.

Panting. Hunk could hear it behind him. Wet, stinking of rotten flesh and mushroom. 

Getting closer. 

Closer and closer.

_Closer-_

Hunk’s foot glides on the ooze top layer of a particularly shiny mushroom. He slips, falling on his back. “Keith!!!! A little help !” Hunk screams. “Galra Buddy no!” He only gets a glimpse of galra bouncing off the edge of mushroom before there was hot air on his face- 

The monster screeches and recoils. Hunk’s nostrils are bombarded with the stench of burning hair and acid. 

“Keith!!!” Hunk cries, and takes Keith’s offered hand. 

“Don’t start thanking me now. Keep alive!” Keith yells, brandishing his ooze covered bayard. 

The monster withers on the ground, trying to shake off the red-pink ooze off its face. It rolls back up again. 

“Move! _Now!_ ” Keith yanks Hunk backwards. 

“Wait no I dropped Galra Buddy! We’ve got to go back for him!” Hunk stays put, making Keith stumble.

“ _What?”_

“He rolled off the side of the mushroom!”

He’s hit with the smell of burning acid and rot and oh this is it-

A gunshot. The monster reels with a roar.

Galra Buddy leaps onto their mushroom. Their blaster out and pointed at the monster. They fire another shot. 

“Galra Buddy! You’re awake!” Hunk exclaims over the sound of the screeching beast. 

He fires another shot, not at the monster but at a nearby mushroom, eating out a chunk of its stalk. 

“You’re trying to knock the mushroom onto the beast.” Hunk hears Keith say behind him.

“Yeah! Let’s squash that guy!” With a yell, Hunk takes out his bayard and fires a line at the nearby row of mushrooms, destroying their stalks and collapsing them onto the beast.

Galra Buddy fires the final shot in their mushroom, a bulbous red bomb of fungus. As it tips over Keith blasts up and slashes the giant ball. Disgusting ooze bathe the monster. It screeches in agony.

“Bullseye!” Keith pumps a fist in the air. The monster roars. “Let’s roll.” he says, turning to Hunk and Galra Buddy, who’s vigilantly watching the monster still.

The monster lets out a loud roar. 

“Oh you don’t have to tell me twice!” Hunk throws both Keith and Galra Buddy over his shoulders and blasts off to the next mushroom, ignoring Keith’s indignant yelp. 

There’s snapping, and with a roar the beast emerges out of its mushroom prison. 

“We’ve-” Galra Buddy’s blaster cuts through Keith’s statement, “-got to get back to the yellow lion!” 

“But we don’t know where he is!” Hunk exclaims, panic bubbling in his throat. The mushrooms stop at a large gorge in the ground. More like a cave, really. He couldn’t see a thing. “Uhh guys?” he asks, voice rising. 

The monster roars again. Closer.

“Weird underground cave?” Hunk asks, glancing back at both of them.

Another roar. Claws scrape against mushroom.

“Weird underground cave it is.” Keith confirms. Galra Buddy fires another shot at the monster. And that’s as good of a response as any.

Hunk clutches both galra tighter and jumps into the gorge. 

He hears a final gunshot before everything comes crashing down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha this chapter is significantly longer than Chapter 1. I'll say now that most of the drafts I've written are around this length so expect that in the future. Chapter 1 was an abnormality in that respect.
> 
> Today's chapter title is loosely inspired by the title of [Wanted Dead or Alive](https://youtu.be/xNRaDavYo1M) by Bon Jovi (1986).
> 
> As always leave a comment, kudos, or constructive criticism. Feel free to point out any grammatical or syntactic errors if find some too. Thank you for reading!
> 
> As always catch me on my twitter at [Deevulture](https://twitter.com/DeeVulture) if you want to discuss the fic with me there or anything relating to the show (or about other fandoms too).


	3. Point of No Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk and Keith try to make sense of their silent teammate. Meanwhile, Acxa tries to assess what they're dealing with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Disclaimer:** _I do not not own_ Voltron: Legendary Defender _or any of the characters featured or mentioned here thereof. This work is meant for entertainment purposes only._
> 
> So! I had planned to release this last month, but I had to rewrite a lot of the original draft which I had been thoroughly unsatisfied with. Then life things came up and I got distracted by them. I'm doing uni right now and I'm very busy. I think I'm going to stick to a month or so schedule from now on (or longer, depending on how much work I have). But rest assured I plan to finish the fic. 
> 
> Again this is my work so please don't repost.

A dust cloud engulfs them, spilling down into the dark cave.

The dark, pitch black cave. The dark, pitch black cave that’s now their only unblocked path left. 

Hunk points his thumb at the blackness, tipping his head over his shoulder at Keith. “Uhh, there’s a way- whoa!”

Galra Buddy rolls off his shoulder with a shove, landing on his feet with a _thump_ that echoes after the crash’s boom. Only gives him a short look before turning away and in towards the cave.

“Uhh, you’re welcome?” Hunk remarks crossly. No thanks for getting him out of there? Or so much as one for carrying his unconscious body this whole time? _Tsk, galra._

A pat on his shoulder pushes the list of complaints out of his mind. “You can, uh, put me down now, Hunk.” Keith says. 

“Oh, yeah.” 

He loosens up his hold on Keith and the red paladin lands on the ground with an equally echo-y _thump_ , sending out his own little dust cloud. He slowly stands up towards the entrance. “We’re...trapped.”

“Y-yeah I was getting to that.” Hunk says, pointing a finger at the haphazardly piled boulder wall. “There’s a massive cave wall right here. And a monster out there. Please tell me there’s another way out of this place.” He’s pretty sure he hears scraping outside. He’s _pretty_ sure it’s scraping. “And if you haven’t noticed yet, we’re nowhere near where the Yellow lion’s supposed to be. So you guys know another way out, right?”

A loud yowl cuts in before Keith can get a word out, loud enough to rattle the stones of the boulder wall. Furtive scratching pushes out some of the smaller stones in the walls, clattering over the larger ones onto the ground. 

“On second thought, I’d just take the dark scary cave actually.” Hunk admits quickly, his heart pounding in his chest. 

“Y-yeah!” Keith agrees. 

They dash into the darkness, not stopping until the beast’s roars were nothing more than distant whispers and the dirt gives way to smooth sleek - flooring? 

Wait -why would a cave have _flooring?_

“Uhh Keith -” Hunk pants, his breath coming out in short bursts. “I think - I think there’s some - _thing_ different abou- aaaah!!” His outstretched foot slides on air and he feels himself tipping over into a dark abyss. 

A hand shoots out and snatches his arm before he nosedives into what would most certainly have been his doom. 

“Keep your head up, Hunk. We don’t know what we’re dealing with.” Keith says, pulling him back up. 

“Thanks, Keith.” Hunk sends a big grin Keith’s way. He blinks away at Keith’s flashlight turning on. “Whoaaa...look at that!” Hunk exclaims.

The flashlight unveils a glistening portrait he’s never seen before. Giant sparkling crystals - perhaps as tall as he is - proudly align every inch of wall and ceiling of the cave. The glistening light gleams their surfaces, bouncing off each other. It’s like that time where they had to hold up those cookies he made in the teleduv, so they could wormhole their way out of Zarkon’s reach.

(He’s so glad they were able to use his cookies.)

But here, it’s almost like a dance. There’s a pattern in how the light bounces off each other, like lighting up the lights on a stage. With the show only broken through by massive roots - belonging to the mushrooms on the surface probably, curling around some of their tops.

“Haha this is amazing! You’re seeing this Keith?” Hunk laughs, pointing at the crystals and looking back at Keith. A sparkle reflects off the corner of his eye. “It’s even on the floor!” He lifts up his foot to allow the full extent of the light beam to hit floor beneath his feet.

“Yeah… it is pretty amazing.” Keith breathes out. With the flashlight on, Hunk can see the way his eyes widen, taking in all the sight. Not that Hunk blames him, he’s tingling with excitement too. 

Something captures the corner of Hunk’s eye. A light. Totally different from the white that reflects off crystals. Coming from the hole that almost dropped him to his doom. 

"Umm, I'm not the only one seeing that ri-"

"Something's down there." Keith cuts him off, crouching down at the edge of the hole and bending _way_ too close.

"Uhh so are we following weird cave lights now?" He asks. He sighs when Keith jumps down.

 _"Sure let's just jump into a random cave hole. No problem Hunk. It's not like I've been worrying about our overdued mission for the past couple of hours or so._ " Hunk grumbles to himself. 

Nope, he's gonna stay put _right_ here. Right here where he _knows_ there’s an exit back _there_ even if it _is_ blocked and currently being scouted out by a dangerous outer space creature hellbent on trying to kill them. 

So he’ll stay here. Where the only things around are non-threatening crystals. And that hole that he’s _not_ jumping inside of. _Nope._ Can't make him.

He'll just wait here then. For Keith to come back. Or for Galra Buddy to show up again. 

_Wait._

Galra Buddy. He came down this way didn't he? He must've gone down the hole then, since he wasn’t up here enjoying the crystals with them. 

And he hasn't come back out. Which means he's still down there somewhere. In the dark scary hole, maybe following that weird light that could be anything. Anything _dangerous._

 _Keith_ followed that light.

Keith, who’s _still_ down there.

Hm. 

“Keith! Keith, wait up!” Hunk jumps down into the hole after him.

He lands on top of a particularly long crystal, using his jetpack to soften the fall. His foot slides on the smooth surface and he lets out a cry when almost tips backwards onto a wall covered in crystals. 

“Eeeheee….” Hunk slowly pivots away from the sharp, pointy crystals. “I’m okay, I’m okay.” he whispers. He sighs. “I’m okay.”

The crystal _snaps_.

He shrieks as he plunges down onto the ground with a _crunch_. 

“ _Ow.”_

He’s on the ground again, at least. He likes it here. On the floor. 

But Keith and Galra Buddy might die so Hunk drags his head up. A pointy sword meets his face and he shrieks, jumping backwards. Pointy crystals stab his back. 

_Ow.”_ Rubbing his arm he looks up at the cave.

Turns out, they were all crystals. Big, towering, covering everything he could make out in the darkness. Walls, floors, literally _everything_ had crystals pointing their sharp points at him. He shakes his head. A wrong move and he’d be a human shish kebab on a crystal. 

_Mmm shish kebab._ He’d like one right now. Like it to not be him though. 

There’s a squeak and a grunt and Hunk turns to Keith perching awkwardly on an angled crystal. 

“Uhhh, watch your step?” Keith suggests with a shrug. His foot slips on the slippery crystal surface again and he brings out his arms to right himself up again. 

Hunk pouts. He's got just the right thing to say to that when the blinking light catches both their eyes and before he’s got a chance to say it Keith’s bouncing away after it.

“Wait, Keith!” 

He gets up, only for sharp needles of pain to stab through the skin of his undersuit. He looks down to see that his _whole_ front side is pierced through with a layer of crystal shards. 

He _hates_ crystals now.

He shakes them all off him. Cautiously, he lifts his leg to step over a particularly sharp crystal bunch only to hiss when a sharp point grazes a line into his calf. 

“Stupid crystals. Stupid cave. Why does it have to be pointy? Why can’t it be _nice_ crystals? Or flowers? Or a nice planet? A nice planet _with_ flowers and spices and egg salad-” he scrunches his nose. 

It’s like, someone tried to cook scrambled eggs, only that the eggs were like all rotten and old but still went along and cooked them anyways. And now the whole place stinks. His stomach begins to clench, the bile rising in his throat.

On second thought, he’d pass on the eggs.

“You run around here as if you know the place.” 

Hunk quickly hops around the crystals, only letting out a couple of “owws” here and there when a crystal would stab him on the leg or stomach. 

Keith stands on the butt of a shorn off crystal, back to him and not noticing that Hunk’s come in. Hunk can’t help but notice what’s the perfectly sliced probably other half lying conspicuously at an angle nearby. He’s standing fearless, arms crossed in front of him, in the face of what’s got to be the largest crystal Hunk’s ever seen. 

Galra buddy lounges out on its top, legs casually crossed together. Fun if he were lounging on the beach, not in immediate risk of getting skewered on a particularly sharp crystal. Like all the ones aiming directly at his head, but okay. On his arm, his holoscreen computer, the source of the light, weakly flickers. 

Hunk slides up behind Keith. “Yeah about that - you do know how to get out of here? Cause you look like you know where you’re going. You know where we’re going right? Could you lead us back to the Yellow Lion?” 

The galra turns his masked gaze on Hunk, and his beading sweat freezes on his neck. The galra’s stare, hidden by his darkened mask, stabs him through like a sword in the gut. The light of the computer, coloring the jagged pointy crystals and the smooth faceless mask in an eerie red glow. 

Hunk gulps. 

But Galra Buddy quickly breaks his gaze away, turning off his computer and sliding off the other side of the crystal. The hum of a booster rocket echoes after it.

“You can’t just-! Urggh!” Keith snarls, blasting away on his jetpack after him tipping Hunk over in the process. It’s not too long before there’s that familiar sword hiss.

“ _Oh no_.” Hunk sighs and blasts after them. 

And yep they’re at it again. His flashlight reveals the two of them interlocked in a battle of wills - or weapons, seeing as Keith’s got his bayard pressed against Galra Buddy’s gun.

_Oh boy._

“Why - why did you - run away?! The first time!” Keith asks, his bayard arm trembling under the pressure.. “Why did you attack-” He grunts as Galra buddy pushes back with his gun.

_“This isn’t good, this isn’t good….”_

The galra stays quiet. Then doubles down on Keith’s bayard with full force, making his knees buckle.

“Alright that’s enough you guys. Cut it out!” Hunk grabs each of them by their helmets and yanks them apart. “Allies do _not_ fight each other ‘kay? That’s like, a big nono.” He feels Galra Buddy’s gaze staring him down. 

Galra buddy’s grip on his gun tightens.

“Uhh…”

“ _Why?”_ Keith presses, apparently ignoring Hunk’s warning and deciding it’s better to twist the knife in. “Why come back after all that? Are you trying to help us?” 

“Yeah what was all that about? With the power render? Were you trying to fix it? Can you fix it now?” Hunk clasps his hands together and ignores the beads of sweat trailing down his face. “ _Please tell me you’ve got a way to fix it so we can get out of here._ ” 

“ _Wait Hunk-”_

He gives Galra Buddy the biggest, bestest puppy dog face he can. Or the best he can muster given how his hair’s plastered to his face in thick sweaty clumps.

Galra Buddy considers him silently. Then looks down at his arm, the screen on his computer flickering. 

“Oh your computer! That’s, uh, my bad.” Hunk admits sheepishly. “Does it have the map back to Yellow? ” He reaches for Galra Buddy’s arm, only for him to yank it out of his grasp. “What? I can fix it!” 

_Wait._

Galra Buddy doesn’t know them. Well he _does_ know them, kinda. From working in the weblum. And fighting off that monster. And he knows Keith the best! Even if they just silently bicker half the time. 

But he doesn’t _know_ them, know them. He’s a space vigilante, maybe shy too. Given how he tends to run away a lot and all. If he’s anything like those Blade guys, who had them all parked outside for _two days_ except for Shiro and Keith (who they ended up whooping his butt the whole time), he probably wouldn’t want to work with them unless he knew them better.

And if that’s the case - _aw man_ that’s _got_ to be fixed. 

He stands up straight and clears his throat. “Allow me to introduce ourselves. The angry one here is Keith, paladin of the red lion, and also our resident galra alien team member, but you already know that so….” 

“Hunk what-”

“And I’m Hunk, paladin of the Yellow Lion, the best of the Lions. If you ask me.” 

“Hunk, w _hat are you doing?”_

“ _I’m trying to get him to trust us.”_ He throws the whisper over his shoulder at Keith.

“ _What?”_

“And I’m also Voltron’s unofficial mechanic. Alongside Coran, and Pidge kinda, though she’s more of our tech and hacking guy. I’m more in charge of ringing up and fixing what’s already there.“ Hunk continues. “And I can fix your computer thingy! So if you just lend me your arm here- hey!”

Everything seems to slow down then.

Galra Buddy takes a step back, pulling Hunk with him, other hand reaching for his holster. An unassuming crystal, small enough to be overlooked but big enough to trip over, catches his foot in its grasp. Hunk’s hand only has time to slide across the orange and gray barrel of the galra’s gun before it fires. A blast pulsing, blinding, its blinks past them. Over Keith’s head, forcing him onto the ground. The crystals on the wall colors purple before-

“Wait no!” Hunk leaps and grabs each one of their shoulders and drags them both down onto the ground.

It's like a bomb. Or more specifically, like a hammer to a window. A thousand tiny shards pierces through him like a human pincushion. Fortunately, his armor blocks out most of the short little stabbings to his back, though his legs get the worst of it.

Water gushes out of the blast, blasting the other side of the cramped cavern and quickly flooding it with patchy blue-green liquid.

But the smell. Now _that_ was way worse. The taste of rotten eggs, which was bad coming in, now cakes the walls of his mouth and throat like sticky sandpaper. Tears burn out of his eyes as hacks out air that only works to choke him even.

“Hunk!” He hears Keith 

Burning shoots up his leg too but before he can even register what’s even going on hauls him up over a smooth surface. 

Hunk blinks away the buzzing in his head to see Galra Buddy point his blaster at a sticky hand.

Wait a _what?_

It _smacks_ Hunk in the face.

With a scream Hunk summons his bayard and blasts the disgusting creature off in the darkness. Whispering and his shaky light reveals the strands of the goop reconfiguring into a long twitching hand. 

“GOOP MONSTER!” He screams. 

Blue-green blobs catch the corner of his eye and hands - wait there’s more than one of these? - slither out from the darkness, their fibers forming little hexagonal paths on the water. With another shriek he fires through those too. 

Loud whispering coming from his right and the first hand lunges at him again. He shoots at it again back. But he misses in the darkness. The blast shattering the crystals in the back, setting off yet another waterfall. 

Water sloshes at his feet and he slides back, closer to Keith and Galra Buddy so he won’t get swept up in its depths. 

The floor’s all but completely submerged in water. His light not showing any signs of the pointy crystals that were just there a couple of minutes ago.

“Uh,” a cough, “-guys? We’ve - _got_ \- a _problem_!” The last word coming out as a raspy squeak when a hand grasps his shoulder hard. It lets out a high-pitched shriek when it gets blasted away. 

“Not now. Kinda busy!” Keith swings his bayard at a flying glob, batting it back to its colony. He stands up higher at the crystal’s tip, stretching for a better view. His back presses against Galra Buddy’s, who’s actually pretty good at picking off his own wave of sticky hands for someone not using a light. 

“But the water’s getting too high!” Hunk rasps. “If we don’t get out of here soon, we’ll be pulled under!” He’s pretty sure he felt his helmet tapping the tips of the crystals at the ceiling. And _no_ he’d rather _not_ get skewered on a crystal, thank you very much. Not anymore than getting dragged down by one of these groping hand monster things.

A sharp cry and a _crack_ later and only Hunk and Galra Buddy are left standing. Hunk blinks.

“Keith!” Hunk cries. He cuts through another wave of groping hands before running over to the spot Keith was taken. Only a blueish-green imprint remains as evidence there was a paladin-snatching goop monster.

“We’ve-” a cough, his lungs burning “-got to save him!” Hunk turns to Galra Buddy.“One of us has to jump in after-”

A tendril tightens around Hunk’s neck and the next thing he knows he’s underwater, surrounded by murky darkness.

“Help! Help I’ve - been sucked in!” he coughs, the tendril choking the air out of him. “Keith!” he rasps into the intercom. The slimy tentacle tightens. _Ewewew letgoletgoletgo!…._

More tentacles shoot out from the murkiness and coil themselves around the rest of Hunk’s limbs and pull him down into the darkness. Black spots start appearing in his vision.

 _Aw man this is it._ This’s how he’s gonna die. Drowned at the bottom of a weird crystal cave with nothing to show for it. 

_Sorry Allura, Coran, the whole universe. Sorry for letting everyone down. Sorry to you too Allura, for not being there to fix Yellow. Sorry Pidge, looks like you’ve got to finish that castle defense upgrade by yourself. Sorry Mom, Dad, my uncle. Sorry for never coming back home…._ Hunk sniffs. 

A splash. A figure zooms past him. 

A beat. 

A flash. 

Another beat. 

Then an _explosion_. 

The tentacle around his neck retreats with a high pitched screech and Hunk’s left spinning towards the surface. He gasps as he breaks through the surface of the water, his belly lurching as his helmet clicks against the tip of a crystal. 

“Keith? Galra Buddy? Anyone? Oh no…” he heaves. His eyes hurt - the lids twitching nonstop. Was - was that a part of the choking? But he’s okay now…. 

_There’s some sort of poison in this cave._ Something causing this reaction. There’s got to be. Why else would he feel this way? He _knew_ they shouldn’t have never gone down here….

Another splash and Galra Buddy emerges from the water, Keith slung over his shoulder.

“Keith! You found him-” _cough_ , “-Oh thank-” Galra Buddy seizes his shoulder.

“ _Enough! We don’t have time for this. We to get out of here before we’re choked by the hydrogen sulfide._ ”

Hunk’s head spins. “Wait, did you, did you just - t- _talk?_ ” 

Galra Buddy responds by grabbing his collar. 

“Heh. You did jush... _talk_.” Hunk slurs. “Didn’t… know ...you ... were …girl. Huh.” His head feels like a rock balancing on a stick. Any moment and he’ll…. ...Was feeling so…

_tired._

* * *

She’s made a terrible mistake. 

Acxa’s head breaches through the surface of the water and into another cavern in this underground cave system, the bodies of the two Voltron paladins in tow. A large crystal, much more impressive than the ones in the previous caverns, stands a few feet from the water’s edge. 

_Several_ mistakes. 

She hauls the bodies up onto the crook of its base, adjusting their limbs and head positions. Satisfied that they would not slide off onto the sharp crystals below, she positions herself off to their side, on the crook of another crystal. 

Forgoing her _personally_ _assigned_ mission. Not even Zethrid, who would deviate from the plan at the slightest provocation for a thrill, would not stoop so low as to completely sidestep her own mission to help the enemy on a whim. What is she _doing?_

 _If Lotor were to find out he’d…. No._ She sighs and closes her eyes. He’d be furious. Disappointed, in impeding the speed of their grander vision, something that she’d agree with. But he wouldn’t - he _promised_. He’d protect her. He wouldn’t- 

She sighs and leans back, resting her crossed legs on the tip of a crystal stalagmite. Its hydrated form bends slightly under her weight.

She’s sacrificed her mission, and for what? To save an obnoxious, loud _naive_ paladin. 

_And a traitor._

She side-eyes Keith, spawned out on the crystal below, head resting on Hunk’s torso, asleep. 

He saved her. Scorn drips with every derisive remark he speaks, every distrusting scowl he makes. 

And even then. Defended his choice even when blinded by his own moral self-righteousness. Acxa shuts her eyes and exhales deeply. 

_She_ _still_ forfeited her mission. Knowing this, knowing who he was. Which would make _her_ a-

 _I’m repaying a debt._ That’s all. After they leave this planet, she’ll hail Lotor and she’ll be through with them.

A droplet drips from a crystal stalactite, splashing the corner of the remains of her computer’s cracked dashboard. She exhales sharply and brushes the water away.

After she’s completed the necessary repairs to her computer.

The screen fizzles to life, sputtering and popping in and out of view, but not long enough for her to so much as enter a search or even activate a reboot protocol. And despite what Hunk says, that cannot be easily fixed. 

She tosses a chip out of her dashboard into the water. 

It needs to be replaced. And for that she’ll need a new adapter, which she could find, if she could locate the alternate crash site. 

Which would be difficult, if not impossible without the proper guidance system. Which she had, on her now defunct computer. 

She shuts the screen off and sits back, head resting on her folded arms. She glances down at the yellow paladin, splayed out on his back against the massive crystal. Her eyes narrow.

And whywould he attempt to? A soldier’s personal data computer is just as important, if not more, than his own life. He can’t expect her to offer her arm and permit him to tamper with it. There _has_ to be an underlying motivation. Her experience with the paladins has shown them to be naive, untrained, lacking discipline, but they are still _soldiers._ Soldiers with a rapport of _breaking into galra bases._

She’d know. In prior intelligence gathering missions for Lotor, she’d found numerous reports of the paladins infiltrating galra command ships, often with various degrees of damage.

He must have an underlying motivation. Trying to extract data, for Voltron’s benefit. Even if he’s unskilled at hiding it. 

She’ll have to be careful. Which shouldn’t be a problem. As a trained soldier of the empire she’s always aware of-

“You’re here too.”

Acxa instinctively jumps back. Her back plunging into the water below. She opens her eyes only to shut them again at the bright light directed at her face. With a small sigh, she opens them again, knowing who it is.

Keith stands above her, crouching down on his crystal, his flashlight hovering over her like an interrogation beacon. 

A yawn breaks out in the darkness. Hunk emerges behind Keith, stretching his arms out in the air. Too far, only to tumble over the edge of the crystal with a shout. 

“I’m okay!” he clarifies, holding his thumb up in the air towards the stalactites. Why he would need to point them out is beyond her. They are only crystals. Looking up at the ceiling only confirms it.

She furrows her brows. 

“Get it together, Hunk.” Keith says, but the remark isn’t serious. 

_Get what together-?_

“I am, I am. I’m - I was just stretching, you know.” Hunk raises his left arm in the air and with a pleased groan, stretches it out again. “Yeah, now I’m good. I’m good.”

Keith snorts. “I see that.” He turns back to her, his expression darkening. “You too.”

Realizing she’s still in a compromising position she quickly rises to her feet in proper posture more fitting of an officer, ignoring the way her cheeks heat up under her helmet. _I’m always prepared._

“Hey Galra Buddy - _wait_.” Hunk freezes. “Wait-wait-wait where are we now. Are the killer goop monsters gone? Are we safe or-?”  
“I think so?” Keith says, shining the flashlight back at her. She blinks away, instinctively. “You’re the one that brought us here. You tell us.”

There was a notable lack of thermophilic activity traversing the underwater chambers, but that could simply be due to the acidity of the water itself. Only certain extremophiles could survive those conditions, besides adequate suits constructed to sustain such harsh conditions. She doubts variant slime molds include them.

But they couldn’t be too sure. 

She pivots towards the waters lapping at the shoreline. Acxa instinctively raises her arm to scan the lake for thermophilic activity when the computer sputters and flickers out again. She exhales in frustration. 

“Uhh are you sure you don’t want me helping you with that? Cause as I was saying before, I can fix it like real quick.”

 _No._ Her armbands clicks when she presses it against the side of her greave and side steps out of Hunk’s arm length. 

“Knock it off Hunk, he doesn’t want that.” Keith says, scanning his light around the cave. “The coast is clear anyways.”

The coast is pale white, mainly from dense sulfuric saturation.

“You sure?” 

“Yeah.”

Acxa narrows her eyes. This species lacks proper color vision then. With Keith taking after them. She will have to keep that in mind as future reference.

Hunk sighs with relief. “Oh thank goodness! Cause I do _not_ want to be choked by another sticky hand again. Good thing Galra Buddy was there. Cause pretty sure I would ”

 _It was a thermophilic slime mold. And they have pseudopods, not appendages._

“You’re the one that saved us.” Keith breathes, pivoting his head on the side in a posture Acxa assumes is meant to convey wonder.

_He just stated that._

But he’s still staring at her with wide, awed eyes. 

She sighs. A true soldier of the galra, commits to their own allies. He out of all should know this.

“Uh huh! They were , but then there was this splash - that was Galra Buddy - then this light. And then ‘BOOM’! It let me and you go!” Hunk gestures for emphasis. 

A mobile timer bomb, one of the few she had, and had to sacrifice. Not particularly effective, but enough to dispatch the plasmodium of mutant subterranean fungi. 

It takes her a tick to notice the hands hovering over her shoulders before she recoils out from Hunk’s grasp. “Oh come on! You’ve never had a thank-you hug before?”

A what-? _Never._ She evades his grasping hands again and leaps onto a nearby overturned stalagmite. 

“Oh we’ll have to work that.” He says to Keith, placing his hand on the side of his face, resembling a barrier, as if to block his statement from reaching her. 

The cave rumbles. Dust clouds drift down from the ceiling. A couple of crystal shards clatter onto the larger crystals below. Acxa holds her position.

“Ahhh it’s not dead! The monster’s come back to get revenge on us for killing it the first time! Keith!" Hunk latches onto Keith, shaking as hard as the stalactites.

 _This is the Yellow Paladin of Voltron?_ Acxa raises one of her brows and turns to Keith.

“Hunk! _Calm down_ there isn’t anyone here but us.” Keith admonishes, but otherwise doesn’t shake the other paladin off. “It’s just a minor earthshake.”

“A _what?!”_

“Just some loose dirt making the crystals fall down.” 

“That isn’t better.” 

There’s one final tremor then silence. She glances back at the ceiling. The stalactites steady themselves, with only a couple of shards clacking down onto the crystals below. 

“It’s stopped shaking.” Hunk lets out.

“See? Nothing to worry about.” Keith continues. “Don’t go falling apart on me Hunk. Bad enough that the roof’s doing that already.” He slowly pulls his arm out of Hunk’s grasp. 

Hunk blinks. “Wait is that another joke?” He lets out a chuckle and points at Keith, looking back at her. “Keith made another joke. Can you believe- whoa-whoa-whoa Keith where’re you going?”

“ We should’ve made it to the castle hours ago. We’re _late._ We need to move. _Now._ ” Keith disappears over the top of the crystal. There’s a thump on the other side. 

She's vaguely aware of Hunk muttering something under his breath. “Are you sure we should be going that way?” Hunk calls after him. “Is that the right way?” He asks turning back to her.

She stares at him.

“ _Let’s move!_ ” Keith yells over from the other side of the crystal. 

“Are you _positive_ we’re _not_ gonna meet any sticky hand monsters or giant falling crystals there?” Hunk’s voice trails at the end as he scrambles over the surface of the crystal, his light waving wildly in the air before disappearing over the crystal surface. Acxa watches him leave. 

Keith’s response there - that wasn’t what she expected. The galra _punish_ cowardice. Not even Lotor, with all his mercy, tolerates it. But here Keith is, brushing it aside and humoring his timid co-paladin. 

_“We can’t leave people behind, even if they are galra.”_

She should’ve expected it then. The paladins handled situations much like Lotor did then. _Better than-_

Something churns in her insides so she focuses instead on the darkened cave once, the only light dispersing through the faint glimmers from several bioluminescent mushroom caps. A bright twinkle, catches the corner of her eye. It disappears when she faces the underground lake. Her frown deepens, and she raises a hand to her holster.

A hand seizes her arm. “You might like standing around in dark, creepy caves, by yourself, doing whatever. But we’re _not_ leaving you behind to get eaten by a scary goo monster or crushed by giant falling crystals. Nope.” Hunk tugs her up to top of the mushroom, both hands wrapping around her bicep. 

She blinks at him. Then looks down at her arm and quickly snatches it out of his unrestrained physical touch. She gives the lake one more glance before hopping up and down the crystal onto the soil below and heads into the cave after Keith. 

The cavern differs from the others in its system. It bears a higher ceiling, with massive calcium sulfate columns largely replacing the smaller cramped crystal bunches that had coated every part of the first cavern. 

The terrain is more varied, and reaching Keith means she has to scale certain dirt or crystal mounds, maneuvering around the soaring pillars, with scaled-up versions of space mushrooms behind it bending in its opaque, faceted surface. Or occasionally blasting on a mushroom over a gorge in the earth.

She finds Keith under the glowing gills of one of the large bioluminescent mushrooms that overlook the landscape alongside the crystals. He surveys the wide expanse of the cave, his light darting from one direction of the cave to the opposite. “There has to be a way out of here” he says, leaning over the edge of a large boulder to glimpse at a better view. 

She’s vaguely aware of Hunk’s protests echoing some distance behind her, meaning the statement is directed at her. She jumps onto another boulder to get a better look. The action startles a pebble off its surface. The resulting clatter echoing down the side of the cliff then cuts short. Strange.

Keith continues, “If we don’t then - the universe is gonna be in a lot of trouble.”

She bends down to pick up another small loose object - her hand finds itself around the body of a discarded shard of anhydrite, small enough to fit within her palm. While Keith continues to ramble behind her she drops the piece down the escarpment watching as it bounces off the edge into the blackness below. Its sound too cuts off early, too soon for the velocity of the object and the distance it disappeared from where she stands. 

_Hmm._

Huffing behind them interrupts Acxa’s experiment. “You guys- galra - can you maybe, maybe slow it down a bit?” He wheezes, hands on knees.

Acxa raises a brow. All soldiers are trained in speed. Even Zethrid could keep up with her fellows generals. _He_ should be faster.

Hunk lets out a huge sigh and stretches. “But wow look at this place.” He continues, staring up the column of a bulk of a particularly massive crystal, thick and girthy, piercing through the ceiling of the cave. Its once faint blue glow, transmitting the intermediate mushrooms surrounding it, now glows yellow in the light of Hunk’s flashlight. “What do you think they’re made of?”

 _Calcium sulfate dihydrate._ A common mineral that grows gradually in the presence of oxygenized sulfide water over long periods of time, usually thousands of decapheobs. Judging by the immense size of these crystals, they likely had a very long time to do so. And a constant access to a heated, mineral saturated water source.

“Hunk, _focus_.” Keith jumps down from his boulder post. “We’re not here for sightseeing some big crystals.”

“I know, I know. This is pretty cool to look at. Like sure, some weird freaky monster or natural disaster hellbent on trying to kill us is bound to show up, maybe. But it’s nice to see I think.” Hunk raises his hand as if to wipe away the sweat off his brow. A useless gesture, as he’s wearing a helmet. “Unrelated, but it’s really hot in here right? Like I’m not the only one feeling it right?” Hunk says, following Keith down the path. 

Keith chuffs. “No kidding. Sweating like a dog here.” 

Hunk smacks his lips together.“ Yeah it’s pretty bad. Don’t you think so, Galra Buddy?” He says, pointing the light towards her.

 _It’s because of the extraordinarily humidity common to these caves._ Acxa learned the experience firsthand. She scouted through similar caves on Planet Zigexia, at her mother’s orders. It only took a couple of doboshes before she began suffocating from the scorchingly high temperatures and near complete humidity.

These two are lucky to have the appropriate gear. 

She takes another glance down the escarpment, and then leaps down from her boulder to continue along the path. 

There’s something down there. Something she’s certain she hadn’t seen on Zigexia. 

“Uhh, Galra Buddy?” Hunk says behind her. 

“I don’t think you’re gonna get an answer from him.” Keith says. Dirt crunching tells her that he at least had gotten out from under the mushroom’s gills. A glimpse over her shoulder, and he’s waddling around crystal bunches following her initiative.

“Um, actually it’s _her_ .” Hunk corrects, holding a finger in the air. “She’s a girl. I mean she _sounds_ like a girl. She said some things after she’d saved you from the big scary goop monster. Sounded like a girl’s voice to me. Right, Galra Buddy?”

A mistake. She’d hoped he wouldn’t recall afterwards, given how the saturation of hydrogen sulfide appeared to cloud their judgement. But it seems the paladin armor blocks most of the gas’s harmful effects. 

Any action she takes can be used against her at any appropriate moment. Now she’s at risk. 

“Even then, I don’t think you’re getting a peep out of her soon.” Keith tentatively steps over a crystal bunch. He quickly retracts his foot when a crystal bends under his weight.

“Don’t discourage her.” Hunk chides him. With the hand over his face again he leans towards Keith and whispers loud enough for her to hear “ _She’s shy.”_

_No._ That makes her face him. She is an elite soldier trained in the art of Galran warfare. Any _proper_ soldier knows that excessive speech is a liability.That they talk so much is _unnecessary._

She narrows her eyes. 

And _suspicious._

“I know you galra guys struggle with talking and stuff. And what better way to talk about, I don’t know getting to know each other. You know, since we’re allies now and all that right?” Hunk continues. He sends an excessively large grin her way.

_He’s devising something._ She knows it.Their paladin armor is primitive, but recording devices existed in the Ancient era. They likely carry some variation of one.

The first time she spoke was an oversight on her behalf. And likely unanticipated on his. He likely didn’t capture a voice file to manipulate. But she’ll have to be careful from now on. 

“You try it Keith.”

“Huh? _”_ Keith stops. 

Acxa pauses too. 

“ _She hasn’t made her introduction yet._ ” Hunk whispers, loudly. Is he aware that she has superior hearing than whatever primitive species he belongs to? And that she’s not even a half-foot away from them both?

 _I’m trying to get her to trust us._ Hunk’s earlier words echo back to her. She exhales.That explains their behavior. It's a presentation, a mirage to have her lower her guard.

She will _not._

Keith sputters. “That isn’t important right now. What’s more important is getting out of here, and getting the scaultrite to Allura and Coran and the Castle so they get the teleduv up and running.”

 _A teleduv?_ So the paladins are trying to build a new one, given the amount of scaultrite they’ve collected. 

“... _The universe is gonna be in a lot of trouble.”_ Hm.

A kicked stone clacks over crystal and Acxa turns back to the trail. Large crystals block their smooth descent down onto the cavern floor below. She examines the bent crystals Keith supplanted. It curls inward like a kinetic spoon. She looks back to the larger crystals. They’re still hydrated, even with the lack of water. 

The wrong step and-

“We _really_ don’t have the time Hunk!” Keith snaps. And without another word with the other paladin puts out his foot.

She sticks out her arm, and Keith topples over with a choke. “What’s-”

Their eyes meet. Even if he couldn’t see it under her darkened helmet. His are hard, questioning. 

He shrugs her off. “We’ve got to find a way around that.” 

“Wait-wait-wait what just happened? Find a way around what? The “what” is not a thing that’s gonna attack us right?” 

Clattering. Vibrating stones wobble over to the cliff edge, hurling themselves off onto the darkness. 

“-Just some crystals. We’ll have to go around-”

“I’m not going around there. It’s too dark.”

The ceiling groans.   
“Hunk, there’s a pathway. You’ll be fine.” 

“But that place is _really_ really dark. Like _spooky_ dark.”

“Spooky - _what?”_

The ceiling crystals tremble. Smaller shards clatter onto the ground. Acxa slowly inches back. 

Hunk cranes his head over the edge of the expanse, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” he points at the rapidly crumbling narrow path at the side of the escarpment, “I can’t see anything there. It could be a giant hole. Or a giant monster. Maybe you galra guys can handle falling off 30 foot cliffs but if I fall-aaaah!”

The ground _lurches_.

Keith snatches his collar, pulling the other paladin back just as the rocks under his feet crumble into the abyss below. 

“Whoa what-?” Hunk cries out.

 _Cracking_. Stone splits beneath a sharp crystal at the ceiling. She reaches for her holster. It falls. 

“Hunk! Behind you-!”

She remembers pulling the trigger and the next thing she knows she’s staring up at the curled groove of the massive crystal, blaster pointing at the air.

“ _What was that?”_ Keith gasps. 

“Oh it almost killed us ohmygoshmygosh-” Hunk’s armor-padded elbow presses underneath her ribs.

The combined weight of the paladins imprint her form onto the ground below. Her helmet clinks against Hunk’s as she pushes him off her.

“Ow! That hurts!” he protests. “You don’t have to be mean! You could, you know, _ask_ me to get off. Nicely.” 

Acxa gives him a look. Then with a palm to his shoulder _shoves._

“Okay, okay! I’m getting off! _Geez. And I thought Keith was testy.”_

“ _I heard that_.”

“Hehe. Well it’s kinda true.”

The stone at the cliff’s edge splinters, the already present cracks widen.

“ _Not again.”_ Keith groans

The giant crystal moans, a deep, loud wail, collapsing on its side, towards the abyss. Large cracks break through the other side. Newly revealed mycelium strains, splits under its heavy load. 

“I think it’s gonna bring it all down!” Keith yells.

Acxa fires her blasters. 

It’s too late.

A loud snap, and the mycelium gives into the weight of the crystal. The crystal smashes onto the last of the roots and the entire cliff shelf crashes down into the abyss, throwing Acxa and the paladins down with it.

“Hold on!” Keith screams.

The cliff edge splinters into pieces, tossing them onto a smaller stone saucer. Her heart lurching with every bump and jerk it takes. Her stomach lurching as the saucer ricochets off one half of the crystal and making the three of them ricochet off the edge. 

The saucers snag on a large crystal and flips. And next they’re floating on air- spinning around a dizzying blur of colors - blue, white, and black. 

Only for all to come crashing down into the current reality with a loud _smack_ against the stone. 

Acxa inhales. Her brain and stomach jerking her back to consciousness. paladins groan beside her. She exhales. 

“Is- is everyone okay?” _Keith._

Hunk proceeds to answer him by gagging then retching out the remnants of his last meal. Her nostrils flare. “I-I think I- _ow.”_ Hunk takes in a deep breath. “I’m okay.” 

“And you?” 

Acxa glances over at Keith, then looks away. There’s a dull pain throbbing her ribcage spreading down her spinal cord.The lingering echoes of Hunk’s screams ringing in her ears, rattling the already developing headache there. But at least she can still move.

_I’m fine._

She’s ahead of herself. Because a brief couple of ticks of thundering is the only forewarning they receive before the other half of the crystal crashes down on them.

* * *

He’s got to get out of here.

He twists in between the rocks trying to squeeze out, his legs kicking in the air. The rocks only clack against each other. 

Alright, not that way. He’s got to try something else. 

Keith fires his booster rockets, but the rocks pressing down on his back stops them from activating. _Okay not working either._

There’s someone speaking above ground. But Keith can’t make out any of the words. Some rocks crunching.

“Hunk? Hunk is that you?” Keith yells. 

It stops. Then the crunching gets louder as who Keith assumes is Hunk walking up to him. 

“Keith? Keith is that you?” Hunk’s muffled question filters through the stone. “Don’t worry, buddy, I’ll get you out of there.”

There’s hands on Keith’s ankles. Aching pain shooting up his leg as Hunk pulls him out from the underneath the rock pile.

“Keith you’re not dead! We’re not dead.” Hunk says, putting Keith down on the rocks next to the hole. “Oh I knew it! I _knew_ that shaking was bad. When the rocks first started falling I was like-”

“ _Ngh!”_ Keith lets out as his head thumps on a rock on the way down. He lets out a breath and lets Hunk ramble. “Yeah, I think I get it, Hunk.” He rearranges his arms and legs into a ‘push-up’ position. A couple of bones pop. “ _Besides,_ we’re fine. Just below ground. I think.”

“But we’re _already_ below ground. Now we’re below _below_ ground. _And_ farther away from the exit.”

 _I know._ Keith drags himself up. “Where’s-” Keith hisses as a sharp pain shoots up his legs. He follows Hunk’s pointing finger to a place behind him.

“Over there. Looking around. In the dark. With no light on. Kinda weird if you asked me. I take it’s a galra thing, right? Can you do it too?” Hunk fires in rapid session.

Keith blinks. The shape of the galra hunched over fizzles slowly into his view. Next to some tall crystals. He looks down at his turned-off flashlight. “ _I-I guess_? Come on, we have to find a way out. Get back on track.” 

“Yeah I’m getting to that.” Hunk points his finger up at the hole in the ceiling. “Do you even know where ‘out’ is? Cause if you guys haven’t noticed, we don’t have a map. And every step we’ve taken only gotten us deeper down into the cave. And I might not be an expert on caves, but I’m pretty sure ‘down’ isn’t ‘out’”

“Have you tried scanning the place?” Keith rubs his neck. His undersuit’s tacky underneath his fingers, chafing the skin underneath. _Really hot down here_.

“Uhh that’s a problem cause nothing works here? I’ve tried, you know. To make a scan? But nothing and I mean _nothing_ works. My screen, it just showing static.” Hunk activates the data pad on his arm. Blue and green noise crackle in a small box on the screen. Small red Altean symbols blink under it - probably saying something like “no connection.”

“I think - I think we’re trapped here.” Hunk’s gaze darting side to side. “Keith what are we gonna do? If we don’t get out of here, we can’t finish the mission. And if we don’t finish the mission, we won’t be able to build the teleduv to wormhole Zarkon. And we can’t wormhole Zarkon-”

“ _I know okay?”_ Keith snaps, then instantly regrets it when he sees Hunk’s scared, sad face. “Look, we just have to...figure out how we’re gonna do this.” Keith licks his lips, tasting the salty sweat there. “And what about _her._ ” He nods his head in the direction of the other galra. “Have you asked if she knows anything?”

“I tried, but she is really _really_ hard to talk to. She doesn’t say anything. _At all_. Also after her computer thing broke- any time I get near her she just keeps her distance, I think. That’s why I’m saying she’s shy.” Hunk continues.

 _Does the same to me._ “I’m sure you’ll figure something out. You’re good at this.” Keith folds his arms around his chest. 

“That’s the thing,” Hunk looks down at his forefingers pressed together, “I was hoping, since you guys are galra and all, you might be able to have her open up? Just a little? Make her less shy?’

Keith glances back at the galra. She’s still hunched over in the corner, not paying them any attention. “I don’t think that’s gonna work.” 

“I’m just saying. You guys had a connection back on the weblum. You might be able to get her to talk?” He explains.

 _Wouldn’t call it a connection_ . Frankly, he didn’t know _what_ to call it. The ‘connection’ between him and the other galra constituted mainly a series of ‘why’ questions trailing all the way back to the weblum, and maybe before that. None of which the galra had been keen on giving him an answer to. 

_Convenient._ That’s what it is. A trade-off, for saving her back there. Though that wouldn’t explain everything else that happened afterwards.

Probably. 

“And maybe once you get her to relax a bit,” Hunk continues, apparently not noticing Keith’s doubts or just choosing not to. “Well then I’ll come in, and together we make a plan to get out of here and then we’ll go save the universe!”

Keith raises a brow. If Hunk couldn't get the galra to talk he doubts he’ll be able to do it. He’s not him, or Shiro. He’s no good with people.

But Hunk’s giving him that _look._ Clasping his hands together and with those big eyes. 

“ _Fine.”_ Keith marches over to the corner where the galra has planted herself in. He hears Hunk saying something after him but he leaves it at that. _Let’s see how much ‘connection’ we’ve got going on._

She’s still there, the galra. Crouched over a really dark, shiny part of the ground, only broken up by a couple of blue star-like dots. He could see the reflections of big blue mushrooms and the crystals growing out of the wall. She doesn’t move a muscle when he walks up to her. 

“Um, hi.” He says.

She turns her head, barely - he only sees it cause the movement reflects off the surface of the floor. It's all the acknowledgement he needs anyways. 

“Um, look. We’re on a very important mission right now. Err, before, when we were on, the weblum. If we’re late - then the teleduv won’t be - I’m already in a tight spot with - we _can’t_ be late alright? We can’t turn our backs on the universe.

So if you’re here to help us out - then will you?” _That’s good enough, right?_

She reaches for something, and he automatically gets into a stance, only for her to pull out a small crystal shard. He watches as she tosses it onto the reflective part. The floor _reaches_ out and swallows it whole. 

“ _What?”_ _That_ gets her to turn around completely to stare at him. But he’s transfixed on the ground - pond? It didn’t even make a splash _._ Just swallowed the thing whole. Bubbles start forming at the spot. “ _Acid_.”

The galra stands up, abruptly. She raises her hand to her side; he reaches for his. But the galra turns around staring up at the ceiling. He follows her. Same starry pattern as the acid pond. That’s - that’s always been there huh. 

“I don’t think we can get out through there.” Keith says, tracking her gaze up to the hole in the ceiling where they fell in. It’s too high. Maybe Hunk could knock some crystals down to form a bridge out. But the ones in this cavern were too thick, too short to do the trick.

“Keith! Galra Buddy!” Crunching rocks tears Keith away from the ceiling towards Hunk who’s lumbering towards them on uneven stone. “You guys have a plan to get out of here? You guys did make a plan right?” It doesn’t take long to notice that he’s shaking.

Keith looks back at the galra staring at the ceiling. “We’re...getting there?” He frowns at Hunk’s pout. “He’s _really_ not much of a talker.” 

A low long rumbling cuts in. The galra spins around their blaster out, and Keith brings his bayard out and ready. 

The rumbling turns into a soft stomach gurgle. “Hehe, sorry that was me.” Hunk chuckles sheepishly. He flinches when it grumbles again. “That’s another thing. Food. We don’t have any. And if you haven’t noticed,” he points at the blue mushroom dropping spores next to them, “that isn’t any old portabella. If we stay here long enough, we’ll starve. And less importantly - this place - gives me weird vibes.” He stares back at the pond. Some of the blue star-like stuff plops into it. “Like _really_ weird vibes. We need to get out of here. Like pronto. I don’t know how long we’ll last.”

Keith resheathes his bayard. “Yeah I _know._ ” _Like that’s not what they’ve been trying to do this whole time._ “ _She’s_ not cooperating. I can’t do anything about that.” Keith watches as the galra saunters back under the hole from the corner of his eye. “Can’t you do it? Get her to open up? You’re good with people. She’ll loosen up with you.” _More likely than with me._

Hunk places his hand to his chin. “Well food’s always the way into a person’s heart.” His eyes widen and then snaps his fingers. “I have an idea!”

A blur breaks into their conversation and zips out. 

“Hey!” Keith yells. He vaguely hears Hunk something like _not again._ The galra doesn’t stop, zooming down towards the acid pool tunnels. 

The monster from before explodes through the ceiling with a snarl.

“AAHH I KNEW THERE WERE MONSTERS IN HERE!”

The beast roars. Its white claws outstretched, it lunges directly at Hunk.

“Move!” Keith wrenches him away, the beast clicking its mouth shut where Hunk had been standing seconds ago. “This way!” Keith tugs Hunk into the tunnel where the galra disappeared into. He glances back at the monster, bayard at ready.

A slippery blue spit drips out of the beast’s mouth. It smears it over its pencil sharp jaws. With another roar it lunges again. Stone and crystals rain down as it crashes through the low hanging tunnel. A swipe barely misses Keith and Hunk as they both tumble down into the tunnel. Crystals crunching as they crash onto a pile at the bottom.

“ _Ow_.” Hunk lets out. 

A roar and the two paladins are back up again, their bayards out. But it’s only the beast’s massive paw swiping wildy at air. 

“It’s stuck.” Keith says.

“Aha! You stay trapped!” Hunk laughs.

Keith can’t help but let out a chuckle when the beast swipes at a pond and pulls back with a high-pitched squeak. He turns back to the tunnel “Let’s go.” 

Turns out there’s a lot more crystals down this way. Coating the ceiling and walls again, aiming all its sharp tips at them. They’re only broken up only by mushrooms and the pools. Many are shiny, black, _still._ Others a pale blue-ish white. Soft murmuring breaking through the fading yowls of the beast.

“You hearing that Hunk?” Keith asks.

“Hearing what?”

A crunch.The galra maneuvers around the crystals, stepping cautiously away from the dark pools. The occasional bubble popping on its surface - the only thing reminding him that it wasn’t just some shiny glass on the floor. She bends her knees slightly.

“Could’ve given us a warning.” Keith says, mindful to not lean to harshly on the crystals. They could topple over into the acid.

The galra freezes, before turning around to face them. Her faceless mask reflecting blue off the ceiling lights.

“ _Look,_ about what I was saying earlier-”

The murmurs intensify, growing from soft buzzing to loud whispers, echoing in the cave’s chamber. The blue green lights pulse.

“I’m hearing it now.” Hunk says. “It’s like the forest outside!” He tightens his grip on his bayard.

Another crunch. Keith catches only a blue-gray blur before the galra disappears down the hole.  
“Hey!” his call echoing in the chamber. The whispers intensify further at that.

“Uhh, Keith?” 

With a growl Keith jumps in the hole after her. 

“You-” He taps the crystal with his foot before leaping onto it. “-can’t keep-” he slides down the next one “-running away like this!” His feet crunching crystals at the bottom of the chamber.

He makes out the shape of the galra up ahead, steering around the crystals. She steps in between the sharp ones, and over the pale blue-green ones, the ones reflecting the pale glow of the cave mushrooms. Distant humming echoes in the chamber walls.

“Hey - _whoa!”_ His foot catches the smooth slick of a blue-crystal, and then sliding on the smooth white surface of a clear crystal, the only reason why he’s not on his face right now. With a grunt, he turns towards the blue crystal. 

A boot print wipes the blue film off its surface, revealing the white underneath, same as the clean crystals. _What is-_ A blob plops onto his head. Instinctively he wipes - _smears_ it. All over his helmet.

 _Slime._ Everywhere. Coating the ceiling. Dripping off the crystals. Floating in blobs in the white pools.

He’ll have to stay clear of that. 

A crash snaps him away from the examination. “ _Ow not again.”_ A loud groan follows. “Keith- _Eww what is this stuff???”_ Hunk gags. 

“Looks like a slime pit.” Keith says. His foot slips on the side of a crystal. “Watch your step.”

“Okay now I’m really _really_ sick of this place. _So gross._ _Yuck._ ” Hunk stumbles up, shaking his arms and legs. “Eugh it won’t come off!” He begins to heave.  
A squeak and Keith turns back to the galra sliding on the slick surface of a crystal some distance away. With a growl, Keith maneuvers around the crystals, stepping over the blue and green ones. It’s not too long before he reaches the galra, standing over the edge of a crystal.

“I don’t get it. Why stick around- _huh?”_

The bold sun, bright and _yellow_ shines down on them. 

“ _Im_ _-Impossible.”_

But it is. He’s staring at it - the perfect canvas. The sun’s - _suns,_ there’s two of them - gentle rays shining down on them, filling him with a warm glow. The sky blue and clear as a warm summer’s beach day back on Earth - reflects off the surface of a vast lake - _ocean?_ sitting beneath. If he stands still he could feel the gentle caress of a summer’s breeze -

Hunk’s arm shoots up around the edge of the crystal, panting, grasping at any support he can find. “You guys - _really_ need to stop with the whole running away thing.” He says, hauling himself up next to them. “So what’re you looking at- _whoa. Is this - is this the exit?_ Are we outside?”

“I’m...not...sure?” Keith glances over at the galra, staring down at the pool below. It’s perfectly clear - he can see the cut edges of the rocks at the bottom. _I wonder how deep that goes…._

“Uhh guys, there’s something wrong with the sky.” 

Keith whips back up to Hunk pointing a finger at the sun - _suns_ \- circling around each other really fast. A black line appears on the blue sky below it.

“Uhhh, I’m just imagining seeing that mouth thing right?” Hunk asks. “Please tell me I’m imagining that.”

The suns stop spinning, fastening in place parallel to each other. The line opens up to reveal a large gaping mouth. 

“RUN! NOW!” Keith yells.

The light cuts out then, as the creature’s yellow eyes settle into its sockets. It shoots out its long gooped arm and shatters the crystals below. Tiny shards clinking off Keith’s armor as it barely misses them. 

Keith crunches down on the crystals below. He leaps around the crystals, and over the tiny slime hands grabbing at his heels. 

“Hurry!” He jumps up onto the first crystal up onto the wall. 

“I’m trying!” Hunk replies, bayard out. He shoots away at the tiny slime monsters, slowly making his way across the crystal field. 

Keith looks back at the slime monster. Its sky blue amoebic form seeping over the edge of the clear pool creeping towards Hunk.

With a growl Keith jumps back down and races towards him cutting off a group of the smaller hands from combining with one another. 

“They’ve come back!” Hunk cries over the groaning of the beast. 

Keith swipes his blade at a reaching goop hand, misses, and hits crystal. He growls. “They’ve _what_?” 

“The slime monsters from before! The ones your buddy saved us from!”

The galra. Where’s - where is _she?_

Another goopy hand reaches out and grabs his bayard and drags Keith forward until he digs his heels in the crystals. Slowly he inches backwards, straining the hold the monster has on his bayard. 

She’s gone. _Again._

Something darts off in the corner of his eye. Smashing his bayard against the edge of a crystal, Keith shines his light at the object. 

Screeching, the monster’s eyeball retreats behind the safety of the broken crystal. The arm attached to his bayard relaxes. 

_Light. That’s it._

These things - they make their own light somehow. They must hate any that isn’t their own. 

Another hand shoots out to grab his ankle and he quickly whips around to shine his flashlight at it. It emits a tiny shriek before retreating back into the nearby pond.

“Hunk!” He yells at the yellow paladin. He slices another hand, splattering the goop over the pond. 

“What?! Kinda busy here!” Hunk yells back over his shoulder. He blasts away another swarm of the slime. 

The eyeball stalk pokes out around, only to back as Keith’s bayard hits crystal. “YOU’VE GOT TO FLASH IT!”

“ _WHAT?!”_  
“YOUR LIGHT!” 

“ _OH.”_

Hunk flashes his light at the beast. Keith quickly joins with his. 

At least thirty yellow orb eyes hiss away from the light, sinking back into its amorphous blue blob, slithering back into the darkness. He can hear Hunk gag.

“We’ve got to head back! Hurry! While he’s down!” Keith says.

“Don’t have to tell me twice!” Hunk calls, running back.

“Keep your light on him!” Keith yells as the goop oozes over the crystals.

“I am!” 

“Then get ready to climb!” Keith hauls Hunk up onto a taller crystal by collar. He pulls himself up too, but a goopy tentacle wraps itself around his ankle 

“Keith!” 

A flash. Hunk’s shot splatters eye fluid everywhere. 

“Nggh!” Keith shakes his arm. Sizzling patches on his skin reveal pale skin underneath. _More acid._

The whispers grow louder. The popping bubbles get louder. _Can’t focus on that right now._

“Keith are you okay? Keith?” Hunk asks, balancing unsteadily on the crystal above, bayard in tow.

“Keep going!” Keith snaps. He pushes up against Hunk’s butt, ignoring the idginant squeak from the other, until he’d disappeared over the top of the wall. Only for his head to reappear over the edge.

He can hear the popping next to his ear now. Keith takes Hunk’s hand as a wave of slime hands shoot out to grab him. 

“This way!” Keith says.

“But Galra Buddy! He’s still back there!” 

An explosion. Keith dives onto the ground as crystal and stone hurl against the walls and floor. 

“What was that - _hey!”_

The galra barrels between them only to get caught in Hunk’s arms. 

“Galra buddy! Ohmygosh, omg you’re okay! I thought the goop monsters got you - wait why are you running over _here_ -”

A loud thunderous roar shakes the cave. 

“ _Great._ ” Keith groans.

The beast leaps out at them with cracked claws. Keith gets a whiff of burnt fur before Hunk body slams him and the galra to the ground. They fall into a nearby patch of crystals, bending a small bowl into its sides.

“Good thing these crystals are soft.” Hunk comments.

- _nggh!_ He lets out as a chunk of mushroom bops his helmet and envelops them in a wave of spores, quickly clogging the vents in his helmet. He sneezes.

“- _Nononono_ you’ll get eaten! _Keith!_ ”

“- _Arrgh”_ A boot presses Keith’s helmet deeper onto the spore patch. “ _Hey!”_ he whispers loudly at the galra quickly making her way towards the beast.

The beast whips its head around, sniffing the air. It emits a frustrated whine before slamming its weasel-like snout onto the ground. Its digging claws flinging dirt and crystals back into the air.

The galra dives into a corner near the beast, barely out of its range. She hunches over behind in seemingly distracted by something. 

“ _What is she_ _doing?”_ Keith sneezes again.

The beast snuffles out a trail in the dirt, following up to the galra’s hiding spot. 

“Keith we have to do something. She’s gonna get caught by the creature if we let her keep this up!” Hunk shakes the armor on Keith's arm.

Hunk lets out a peep as the monster runs its nostrils over the galra’s crystal, takes a long whiff, then snorts out hot air. Keith tightens the grip on his bayard as it rubs its tendril like tongue all over the crystal. It turns away with another snort.

Hunk lets out a sigh of relief.

The galra pulls out her gun and _fires_ at the cave mouth, the one they just escaped. 

The beast scrambles, kicking up dirt as it tries to look for the source.

“It - it can’t smell her?” Keith murmurs. He looks down at his arm. A thick layer of spores coats the surface of his armor. The galra has it too.

He’s got an idea.

“ _Keith no!_ ” Hunk whispers after him. 

Keith jumps out of the cove, a chunk of the broken mushroom in his arms. Jumping in front of the beast, he throws it at the monster’s snout and jumps behind the crystal with the galra as it slams its feet down in rage. 

The galra throws a crystal shard over at the beast. It bounces in front of it before getting swallowed up in one of the ponds. With a roar, the beast dives in after it. There’s a second before the beast’s paws sizzle in the acid. The resulting painful roar enough to shake the crystals at the ceiling.

“Hunk now!” Keith dashes for the exit back. 

“Wait that’s the wrong way!” 

Keith whips back to see the galra throw something - a box?- into the tunnel. It lights up with a huge white flash. “What are you _doing?_ ” He follows in after her, ignoring Hunk’s protests. 

Keith only gets a glimpse of yellow eyeballs before Hunk smashes him down onto the spore patch again, his arms tightly woven around his waist.

The amoebic monster rushes out of the cave shrieking, rolling over Keith and Hunk and out towards the back where the beast was still trying to fight its way out of the goop patch.

_A beat._

Hissing.

Scared growling.

_Another beat._

Hissing gets louder.

_And another beat._

There’s a shriek. Then a _crunch._ Then a pained roar.

“ _What’s happening_?” Hunk whispers

“It’s eating the other one.” Keith replies. “ _This way.”_ He tiptoes out of the spore patch.

“Are you sure?” But Hunk follows him anyways, just as quietly.

The outside beast withers under its tendril restraints. A wave of slime rises up and crashes down on it, ending its pitiful whines for good. Blobs of reddish-blue ooze plop onto the ground below. The roaring dwindles down into a mew as Keith jumps down into the tunnel again.

It’s dark again. Whatever light the galra activated had gone out, or she’d turned it off. Speaking of-

Keith freezes when the galra drops down in front of them, crystals cracking underneath her feet. She only gives them a look, then up at the cave entrance, before heading back in the opposite direction.

 _This is gonna be a regular thing with her huh._ “Come on Hunk.” Keith whispers. Still tiptoeing, as to not disturb the feast upstairs, Keith follows the galra to where they last saw the “outside.” 

Droplets sprinkle on his helmet, before he realizes what happened. “What’re-” He looks down. It’s still there - the sky’s gone, as are the suns, but the perfectly clear waters of the lake, the rocks at the bottom, they’re all still there. Ripples breaking the surface being the only evidence that the galra had been there.

She jumped in.

“Wait-wait-wait what happened. Where did your buddy go?” Hunk asks. 

_There’s only one way to find out._ “I think he found an exit. Come on.” 

_“What? I’m not going in there. Keith!”_

They’re dunked into darkness. Keith’s vaguely aware of himself spinning in the dark waters, not knowing what’s up or down.

"Keith?! Keith where are you?! Oh it's so dark, I can't see a thing…" Hunk’s voice rambles in the intercom.

"Hunk! You're literally pulling my arm." Keith says, shifting his left arm, but giving up when the grip tightens.

"Oh… sorry." Hunk says, sheepishly. He doesn't let go though. “Umm so what do we do now? You said jump into the lake. And now we’re here and it’s just dark. " 

"I-I don't know." Keith says, looking around. He’d hoped the galra had an idea. But he couldn’t see her in the pitch-blackness. He lifts his hand activating the flashlight activating on his wrist. 

The rocks - clear enough that Keith could see where they’ve begun to weather - gone. Only black as the cave outside remains. So dark that the light of his flashlight’s swallowed not a couple of inches from his hand.

_And where’s-_

"Urgh what is going on?!" Keith asks, his voice pitching higher. 

"Um, Keith? Not to bother your brooding or anything… but don’t you get the feeling like we’re sinking? Oh we’re definitely sinking!!!” Hunk yelps and clings onto Keith, practically climbing all over Keith.

A strong tug pulls on Keith’s feet, almost as if someone’s grabbed him by the ankles and started tugging on them, pulling him under….

A red panel pops on his helmet’s screen, beeping with a picture of a - tornado? A vacuum? 

“ _Hunk!!!_ We gotta blast now!” Keith orders, practically screaming.

“On it!” Hunk sets off his jetpack.

Pulling his legs now, it’s up to his thighs. Pulling them lower….

“It’s not working!!!” Hunk cries, tightening his grip around Keith’s torso.

“Keep firing!!” Keith yells, blasting with his all that he could.

“I am!! I am!! It’s just- Whoa! Did You feel that” Hunk says.

“Don’t stop!” Keith says, relaxing a bit.

Blasting seems to be working, as the tug had slipped back down to his ankles again.

“I’m holding it - oh it’s grabbing onto me now! Keith!” Hunk screams.

Tearing his right arm free of Hunk’s grasp, he shines his arm light at Hunk’s other arm. 

A familiar blue and orange boot is clutched in Hunk’s grasp. Following the boot - he finds the weblum galra curled around Hunk’s arm, gripping his forearm with one of her clawed hands, otherwise upside down. Her blackened visor pointing directly at them. 

Of course.

“Heyyy… there you are!! Now we can be lost in this scary, awful, dark sink pit together!” Hunk says. His right arm squeezes Keith tighter against his chest, he pulls the galra closer, wrapping his arm around the galra’s upside down torso.

Almost immediately, the tug zips back up Keith’s legs, yanking him from the chest down.

“It’s back!” Hunk cries, squeezing the air out of Keith.

As if the tug of the vacuum wasn’t enough.

“Keep - _keep_ blasting!” Keith wheezes out.

Got their shoulders now.

Dragging deeper. _Harder_. Keith couldn’t feel his legs anymore.

“I don’t wanna die…. I don't wanna die….” Hunk says squeezing Keith and the galra tighter, or Keith thinks he is. He couldn’t tell the difference between the hug and the current pulling them down anymore.

Their heads now.

It's like a big paw pressing down on top. Keith couldn’t even feel his stomach. 

This… this was it huh? They… they’re gonna die here.

“It - it was nice… _working_ _with you guys_.” Keith manages to make out.

Water was filling his helmet now - the warning, once blaring, quiets with a zip.

A bubble _pops._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this really make me realize how different mediums can convey different things. Writing? Now you know what an introvert's thinking about.
> 
> Today's chapter title is loosely inspired by [Point of No Return](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v8YragSIuI) by Exposé (1987).
> 
> Leave a comment, kudos, or constructive criticism! I'm always open to those. And if you see any grammatical or syntactic errors, please point 'em out to me so I can fix them.
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Like always you can always catch me at twitter at [deevulture](https://twitter.com/DeeVulture)


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